Quarterfinals set in European Continental Cup Finals

Half of the 16 countries in each gender that entered the European Continental Cup Finals in the Hague have managed to keep their Olympic hopes alive at the conclusion of the first day of the event on Dutch sand on Wednesday.

With the Round of 16 completed for both men and women, eight nations in each gender have advanced to the quarterfinals of the event, which will reward the winning countries with a place at the Olympics. Each national federation will determine which teams will occupy those berths in Tokyo as the final list of teams for the Olympics will be confirmed after July 1.

The men’s tournament in the Hague saw as many as five of the eight Round of 16 meetings decided in a golden match. Latvia needed the best from veterans Aleksandrs Samoilovs, a three-time Olympian, and Janis Smedins, a London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, to oust Belarus 2-1.

Other countries advancing with golden set victories were Turkey, who eliminated France, Germany, who downed Lithuania, Spain, who upset the Czech Republic, and Belgium, who prevailed over Ukraine.

Host the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland won their duels with Estonia, Slovenia and Serbia respectively in two matches. The Netherlands had to deal with a change in one of their top teams as Steven van de Velde is injured and could not play with Christiaan Varenhorst, who is pairing with Ruben Penning in the tournament.

“We reached out to him less than a week ago asking if he’d like to play,” Varenhorst said. “And for him, it’s a big change as he had to move from blocking to defence and from the right to the left. He accepted the challenge and was a stud today.”

The Dutch will now face neighbours Belgium in the quarterfinals while Austrians and Swiss will play each other. The other two matchups will feature Latvia v Turkey and Germany v Spain.

The women’s tournament didn’t bring as much drama on the first day as only Russia, who defeated Cyprus, and Poland, who eliminated the Czech Republic, needed the gold match to win their Round of 16 series.

“It wasn’t an easy match, but we managed to stay focused when we had to,” Russia’s Ksenia Dabizha said about their golden match. “Of course, there was a little bit more tension because it was a golden match. We also had to adjust our ball touch because of the windy weather.”

Hosts the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Norway, Ukraine and Spain all had lighter work to do, downing Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, France, Italy and Finland respectively in two matches.

The quarterfinal matchups on Thursday will see the Netherlands v Spain, Greece v Poland, Austria v Norway and Ukraine v Russia.

First quarterfinalists determined in Africa

In Agadir, Morocco, four countries in each gender were the first to advance to the African Continental Cup Finals quarterfinal round on Wednesday. Hosts Morocco, Kenya, Cape Verde and Nigeria were the women’s teams to advance and will join Egypt and Mozambique, who were both pre-qualified due to their ranking points. Two more nations will be confirmed at the conclusion of pool play on Thursday.

In Pool A, hosts Morocco were the only ones to advance with a second victory in the event, a clean sweep of Rwanda. Despite the setback, Rwanda remain in contention to qualify and will compete with Gambia and Sudan for the two remaining spots in the quarterfinals.

Pool B has already determined the three countries to advance. Kenya, Cape Verde and Nigeria will move on while the Democratic Republic of Congo is out.

On the men’s side, the four nations already guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals are Mozambique, Ghana, Egypt and Gambia. The four teams are undefeated after the conclusion of the second day of competition in Agadir and have already secured one of the top two spots in their pools. Four other spots will be up for grabs at the conclusion of pool play on Thursday.

Mozambique is at the top of Pool B after their second victory in the tournament, a clean sweep of Nigeria. The Nigerians will compete with Kenya and Mali for the pool’s second spot.

The same is true of Gambia in Pool D after the country’s teams downed Rwanda in two tie-breakers. The second spot of the pool is between Rwanda, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pool C is the only one to have already determined the two nations guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals. Ghana and Egypt won their first two duels against South Africa and Congo Brazzaville and have eliminated their opponents. They will play each other on Thursday for the top spot of the group.

Two of the four spots still open will be taken by Pool A nations. Currently, Morocco and Tunisia are tied at the top with one victory each. Sudan will have to upset the hosts on Thursday to have a chance of displacing one of the teams.