As the Beach Volleyball Olympic tournament is entering the second round elimination phase, we will make a brief review of what happened over the last one week in the preliminary pools. The sold-out venue at the Horse Guards Parade welcomed a lot of great actions, including some early surprises which will certainly contribute to an even more interesting second round outcome.

Pool A

The 2011 World champions and top-seeded London favourites Emanuel-Alison were immediately put to the test in their opening match on Sunday. The Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst took the first set against the Brazilians, but the higher class of Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti paid off and they sealed their first olympic victory after a long 16-14 tie-break. The cariocas were consistent throughout the remaining group games and quite expectedly stood at the leading standings spot in the end.

Pool A, justifying the initial odds, turned out to be among the most balanced groups as the three European teams fighting for the elimination berth finished with a 1-2 record. It was the point ratio in the mutual clashes that determined the final ranking. Doppler-Horst had to leave the Olympic competition as they were ranked fourth, whereas Heuscher-Bellaguarda (Switzerland) and Nicolai-Lupo (Italy) were placed second and third respectively. The Italians, however, could not find a direct spot in the second round as they were not among the best third-seeded, so eventually they had to enter the Lucky Losers play-off.

1 – Emanuel-Alison (Brazil) 6 pts (3-0)
2 – Heuscher-Bellaguarda (Switzerland) 4 pts (1-2)
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3 – Nicolai-Lupo (Italy) 4 pts (1-2)    LUCKY LOSERS
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4 – Doppler-Horst (Austria) 4 pts (1-2)

Pool B

The second preliminary pool saw the defending Olympic champions Dalhausser-Rogers bruise along their opponents. There were absolutely no surprises here as the Americans deservedly topped the final standing. The Spaniards Herrera-Gavira finished as runner-ups while the Czech Benes-Kubala qualified for the Lucky Losers play-offs. The Japanese veterans Asahi-Shiratori packed their bags after the last third defeat in spite of showing some competitiveness and not giving up in any of their games.

1 – Dalhausser-Rogers (USA) 6 pts (3-0)
2 – Herrera-Gavira (Spain) 5 pts (2-1)
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3 – Benes-Kubala (Czech Republic) 4 pts (1-2) LUCKY LOSERS
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4 – Asahi-Shiratori (Japan) 3 pts (0-3)

Pool C

The Pool C favourites Brink-Reckermann topped the final standing. The Germans, however, did not enjoy easy opponents as they were drawn in one of the two tough pools due to the lack of a real outsider. Brink-Reckermann, quite typically for some of the higher seeds in London, started the tournament slowly, but gradually found their winning rhythm and scored three straight victories, including a nervous comeback against Xu-Wu (China). The Chinese will not really remember their 2012 Olympic campaign positively as they lost three tie-breaks and left the tournament without a victory.

I was a bit surprised by the performance of the 40-year-old Swiss veteran Sascha Heyer. He looked exhausted in their 2012 London debut against Xu-Wu, he and partner Sebastian Chevallier dropped the opening set, but supported by the crowd the 15-seeded Swiss came back in the game and won in three sets. Heyer-Chevallier even won against the more powerful Russians Semenov-Prokopiev also in three to gain the runner-up position.

1 – Brink-Reckermann (Germany) 6 pts (3-0)
2 – Heyer-Chevallier (Switzerland) 5 pts (2-1)
3 – Semenov-Prokopiev (Russia) 4 pts (1-2)
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4 – Xu-Wu (China) 3 pts (0-3)

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Pool D

The best team nad leader of the 2012 Swatch-FIVB World Tour so far – Gibb-Rosenthal, were expected to have an easy task in Pool D. Eventually they topped the standing, but they were stunned in two sets by the young Fijalek-Prudel who are the first-ever beach volleyball team from Poland in Summer Olympics. Earlier in the schedule the Poles lost to the Latvians Samoilovs-Sorokins though and thus allowed the Americans to remain ahead thanks to a point ratio comparison. The South African representatives Goldschmidt-Chiya were one of the two teams in the men’s bracket overall that left the Games without taking a set.

1 – Gibb-Rosenthal (USA) 5 pts (2-1)
2 – Fijalek-Prudel (Poland) 5 pts (2-1)
3 – Samoilovs-Sorokins (Latvia) 5 pts (2-1)
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4 – Goldschmidt-Chiya (South Africa) 3 pts (0-3)

Pool E

Pool E offered the major upset in the first beach volleyball olympic week. One of the most consistent and prominent World Tour participants Nummerdor-Schuil (Netherlands) could finish on top of the standing. The Latvian sensations Plavins-Smedins are enjoying the shape of their lives and with three pool wins grabbed the first place. The Latvians demonstrated great teamplay, their defence skills discouraged the Dutch and Janis Smedins did a great job as a blocker to prove that one doesn’t need to be above 2 meters to rule the net.

Erdmann-Matysik disappointed with their results in this pool, it was their only victory in the very last decisive game versus the Venezuelan outsiders Fane-Hernandez to give them a Lucky Losers spot.

1 – Plavins-Smedins (Latvia) 6 pts (3-0)
2 – Nummerdor-Schuil (Netherlands) 5 pts (2-1)
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3 – Erdmann-Matysik (Germany) 4 pts (1-2) LUCKY LOSERS
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4 – Fane-Hernandez (Venezuela) 3 pts (0-3)
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Pool F

It was not difficult to predict the outcome of the last sixth preliminary pool. Ricardo-Cunha were not forced to show a hundred percent of their skills to finish with a perfect 3-0 win and a 6-0 set record. With the presence of the hosts Grotowski-Garcia-Thompson the second and the third position were open and at the end it was the more experienced Norwegians Skarlund-Spinnangr to overcome the Canadians Reader-Binstock in the battle for the elimination round place.

1 – Ricardo-Cunha (Brazil) 6 pts (3-0)
2 – Skarlund-Spinnangr (Norway) 5 pts (2-1)
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3 – Reader-Binstock (Canada) 4 pts (1-2) LUCKY LOSERS
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4 – Grotowski-Garcia-Thompson (Great Britain) 3 pts (0-3)

Lucky Losers

We finishd our group analysis with the two games that determined the last two teams to make it to the Last 16. The Italians Nicolai-Lupo were the clear favourites against the Canadians Reader-Binstock. The best blocker in the Olympic tournament so far – Paolo Nicolai, led the Italian duo to an expected 2-0 win (21-16, 22-20).

In the other play-off the crowd in the fully-packed Horse Guards Parade arena stayed shortly past midnight to witness the great victory of the second-best German team Erdmann-Matysik against the Czech Benes-Kubala (15-21, 21-19, 15-13). The Germans finally demonstrated why they are ranked 8th and kept their medal dreams alive for one more day.

Pictures: FIVB