Hamburg, Germany, June 12, 2016 – The 15 men’s teams eligible to play in the 2016 Olympic Games Beach Volleyball competition have been confirmed - pending confirmation by their respective NOCs/NFs - following the completion of the 18-month Beach Volleyball Olympic qualification process via the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour on Sunday at the smart Major Hamburg.
The 15 highest ranked teams on the Olympic Ranking as of June 13, 2016 each earn one quota place for their NOC/NF to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, respecting the maximum of two quota places per NOC/NF. With the men’s finals in Hamburg having taken place on Sunday, the men’s list is complete, including
Mexico's Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros, who won a pair of matches on Friday over teams from Brazil and Latvia to move into the top 15 pairs. The women’s list was confirmed on Saturday following their finals.
The requirements for a team to earn a quota spot are: 12 events as a team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour between January 1, 2015 and June 13, 2016; rank in the top 15 of the provisional Olympic rankings excluding Olympic host country Brazil and be one of the top two teams in your country that have satisfied the previous two requirements.
The top 15 on the provisional list exclude Brazilians as the South American country earned two berths in the Olympics when women’s tandem of Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt who captured the 2015 FIVB World Championships last July in The Hague in addition to their host country vacancy, which went to Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg.
Here are the teams that qualified berths for their country for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to be played August 6-18, pending official confirmation by their respective NOCs/NFs at the latest by June 27.
Men’s Olympic Ranking, Team, Country, Qualifying Events participated in, Points for best 12 finishes
World Champions - Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil, 14, 7,740
Host Country - Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, Brazil, 15, 6,250
1, Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands, 18, 6,470
2, Nick Lucena/ Phil Dalhausser, United States, 13, 6,280
3, Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst, Netherlands, 17, 5,960
4, Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States, 18, 5,680
5, Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira, Spain, 19, 5,500
6, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Latvia, 19, 5,390
7, Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov, Russia, 21, 5,230
8, Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, Italy, 20, 5,220
9, Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor, Poland, 26, 5,180
10, Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula, Italy, 19, 5,090
11, Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria, 16, 5,020
12, Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland, 19, 4,920
13, Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen, Germany, 23, 4,850
14, Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, Canada, 20, 4,820
15, Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros, Mexico, 22, 4,670
The total number of teams playing in Rio will be 24. The final seven spots will include five spots from the winners of the Continental Cup competition within the five FIVB confederations. Tunisia have already won the African confederation men’s Rio berth. The Asian, European, NORCECA and South American Continental Cup playoffs will be at the end of June.
The second and third-place finishers from each of the confederations will advance to the Continental Cup Finals July 6-10 where the final two spots per gender will be decided in Sochi, Russia. Countries earning spots from the African confederation in the Continental Cup Finals are Morocco and Angola.
The Gstaad Major, the third of five events on the 2016 SWATCH Major Series calendar, will be the site for the drawing of lots for the Beach Volleyball competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The drawing of lots will take place on the evening of July 9 - a few hours after the completion of the women's medal matches in the Swiss Alps village.