USA's Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft finished fourth at last week's Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge event, pocketed 680 points and climbed into the top 15 of the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking for the first time since they teamed up in May.
Beach Pro Tour 2022
Stockman & Kraft take place in top 15 for the first time
Torquay Challenge winners Hughes & Cheng and Lupo & Rossi climb the World Ranking
Published 08:00, 29 Nov 2022
Emily Stockman & Megan Kraft celebrate in Torquay
Now the second highest ranked American duo, after Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil, who are eighth, 34-year-old Stockman and 20-year-old Kraft rose from number 18 to number 13. Their new total of 4,910 points means they are 210 clear of their 17th-ranked compatriots Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, but trail Cannon and Sponcil by 590.
Another US duo, the newly reunited Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng emphatically topped the podium at their Beach Pro Tour debut in Torquay and stormed the charts straight into number 144, with 800 points. It was a clear statement of intentions as the pair aim to catch up with the leading American teams when the race to Paris 2024 begins.
Meanwhile, the four Chinese pairs that played in Torquay and finished in the top eight, made solid steps up the World Ranking. Silver medallists Yuan Lvwen and Dong Jie claimed 760 points and climbed nine positions up to number 42 with a 3,300-point total. They shortened the distance between them and bronze medallists Xia Xinyi and Lin MeiMei, who ascended four spots up to number 28 with 4,200 points, and to quarterfinalists Zeng Jinjin and Wang Xinxin, who shifted eight places up to number 34 with 3,620 points. Zhu Lingdi and Wang Fan, who also reached the Torquay Challenge quarterfinals to finish fifth, moved up from number 60 to number 49.
Helena Havelkova and Marketa Slukova also earned a fifth-place finish at their second Tour appearance last week and got very close to the top 100, rising from number 184 to number 105. At the same time, Georgia Johnson and Jasmine Fleming, whose fifth place was the best result an Australian women’s pair managed to achieve on home sand, rocketed 150 positions up to number 143.
On the men’s side, the host country celebrated winning the bronze medals. Christopher McHugh and Paul Burnett earned 720 points, but also dropped the 600 points they had taken with their 2021 Asian Championship title exactly a year ago. They stayed put in position 12 on a new total of 5,240 points, or 320 below the top 10.
The other two Australian men’s teams that reached the last eight in Torquay, however, moved up the World Ranking. Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis improved from number 28 to number 22, while Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert ascended from 38 to 34. Also finishing fifth, France’s Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat rose from number 27 to number 24 and Switzerland’s Quentin Metral and Yves Haussener moved up from 37 to 35.
One of the tournament’s pleasant surprises, 22-year-old Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos of Portugal, who went all the way from the qualifiers to the medal matches in Torquay, earning fourth, returned to the top 50 of the World Ranking, climbing from number 51 to number 44.
The two pairs which reached the final were new to the Beach Pro Tour last week. Torquay gold medallists Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi stormed the chart into position 153, while runners-up Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri entered just slightly lower, in position 158.
