Dutch Schoon and Stam make it to the top of the world rankings
Beach Volleyball
Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam’s great start in the international season has propelled the young Dutch to the top spot of the FIVB Beach Volleyball world rankings. The list was updated after the conclusion of two Beach Pro Tour events over the weekend and the Dutch moved from second to first place.
Partners since the start of the last season, the 20-year-old Schoon and the 23-year-old Stam have compiled impressive 2,720 points in 2022, more than any other team in the world. The Dutch have won the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Rosarito, Mexico, and took silver in the Challenges that took place in Tlaxcala, Mexico, and Itapema, Brazil.
Their recent success brought their total world ranking points to 4,860, surpassing Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa, who ended their partnership last year, but still preserve their points. The world rankings are based on the eight best results of a team in recognized events over the last 365 days.
Katja Stam“That’s unbelievable. We didn’t expect to get there so quickly. It means a lot to be at the top of the world right now but it will be even nicer if we can stay there for a long time. It’s obviously great to be a champion and win some tournaments, but it’s so much more meaningful to dominate the sport for a long time. That’s our goal and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
Dutch Beach Volleyball Player
The winners of last year’s A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley Vienna 2021 presented by Swatch, Swiss Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner dropped a spot with their ninth-place finish in Brazil and are now fourth with 4,080 points.
Europe has four other teams among the top ten in Germans Karla Borger and Julia Sude, who are sixth with 3,700 points, Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka, who rank seventh with 3,220, Russians Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina, who sit in eighth place with 3,180, and recently-retired Dutch Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink, who are tenth with 3,020.
On the men’s ranking, two European teams appear in the top three – Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway are second with 4,400 points and Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner are tied for tied with 4,360. They both trail Qataris Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, who sit at the top with 5,760.
Five other European duos are also part of the top ten, starting with two teams from the Netherlands – Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen are fifth with 4,280 and Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot come right next at sixth with 4,120.
Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs are seventh with 3,740 and two teams that recently split but still preserve their points – Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak and Russia’s Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov are eighth and tenth with 3,548 and 3,180 points, respectively.
The world rankings will be updated next Monday, when some teams will be forced to drop points referent to tournaments that happened outside the 365-day window.