Moscow was the stage of the new FIVB Olympic Beach Volleyball qualification program. The last two pairs of Olympic visas were to be decided in the Russian capital in the period 28th June – 1st July according to a new revolutionary formula.

 

With a total number of 24 couples expected to enter the Main Draw event in the 2012 London Games, FIVB granted permission initially to the 16 best Beach Volleyball World Tour ranked teams (with a maximum of two per country) to join the Great Britain representatives. The remaining 7 quotas were to be distributed along the 5 FIVB Continental Cups and 2 to be granted in the final World Cup event in Moscow, where the winners of the two semifinals among twelve teams not qualified from the Continental Zones would grab the tickets. Unlike the World Tour quotas, where tickets were granted based on individual teams, the two weeks of zonal tournaments were composed of national teams – the two best couples were competing on behalf of their country with the remark that only the country, not both participating teams, earns a spot in London.

The two-week break in the World Tour allowed the zonal federations to organize the regional Olympic qualifications. South Africa (Africa), Canada (NORCECA), Norway (Europe), Venezuela (South America) and Japan (Asia) each won an Olympic ticket in these qualifiers and will have the right to pick up a local team for London.

A large number of games was set to be played in Moscow, involving those who failed at the initial regional qualification tests. Being one of Europe’s favourites, the Dutch team was stunned by the incredibly experienced Norwegians (Skarlund, Spinnangr, Horrem, Eithun) in the previous qualifier in the Turkish city of Alanya. Now the Dutch, represented by the 2012 European vice champions Boersma-Spijkers and Brouwer-Meeuwsen were hoping to join compatriots Nummerdor-Schuil in the trip to London. Russians, as hosts, also had high ambitions to gain the last berth, but they were aware of the Polish and the Austrian competition – it was namely team Poland that cruised past the Russians in Alanya.

The 2012 CEV vice champions from the Netherlands disappointed in Alanya, they did it again in Moscow as Boersma-Spijkers and Brouwer-Meeuwsen finished third in their preiliminary group behind Russia and the surprise of the tournament Mexico (Ontiveros-Ontiveros and Virgen-Miramontes).
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In a sweet revenge for the defeat in Turkey, Bogatov-Barsouk and Semenov-Prokopiev blowed off the young Poles Losiak-Kantor and Kadziola-Szalankiewicz respectively. The injury of Yaroslav Koshkarev that has been torturing him since the beginning of the season forced the Russian coach to pair up Konstantin Semenov with Sergey Prokopiev, splitting his partnership with Yuri Bogatov and forming a team of the latter and the veteran Dmitri Barsouk. In the other semifinal the Austrians, led by the rejuvenated Clemens Doppler in a team with Alexander Horst, Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl, overcame easily the Mexicans to earn the only Olympic visa for the Alpine country.

“Our mission is complete, and we are going to the Olympics,” Doppler, a veteran player who has only been teamed with Horst for five SWATCH-FIVB World Tour events, said after the Austria – Mexico country match-up. “We didn’t come here as favorites, but we took care of business and worked our way through the Continental Cup process after some great competition.”
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Now it would be left to FIVB to announce the official country nominations on 9th July. There are already various discussions going on about the purpose of the whole qualification process, with certain criticism not only about the selection of one team per qualified country, but also about the whole idea of the World Cup, where no real final was played and an abundant number of games were set for the two semifinalists to win the desired tickets.

Pictures: FIVB