Only eight teams stay in race for the last Olympic spot in Jurmala

The quest for the last spot in the women's tournament at Paris 2024 started on Thursday with kick-off of the BeachVolley Nations Cup Final in Jurmala. Out of twelve contenders who entered this race only eight are still in hunt for the last ticket, as the pool round completed on Thursday ending the Olympic dream for the hosts Latvia, Belgium, Slovenia, Norway. Once Poland, Italy, Finland and Ukraine topped their respective pools.

On Thursday all four pools played round robin that determined the composition of Friday's quarterfinals which promise to be nail-biting battles as Poland will take on the Netherlands, Finland on Czechia, Italy will face Lithuania and Ukraine will play Austria. But now let's sum up what happened at Majori Beach on Thursday.

In the Pool A, Czechia represented by two-time Olympian Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sára Štochlová along with Kylie Neuschaeferova and Marketa Svolizova outclassed Belgium, enjoying the perfect opening of the tournament. The Belgian pairs Coens/Van Deun and Cools/Vd Vonder had to accept also a straight-set defeats from Poland's Jagoda Gruszczyńska/Aleksandra Wachowicz and returning to the international competition 2019 EuroBeachVolley runners-up Katarzyna Kociołek and Kinga Wojtasik who also didn't lose a set in this duel. Fighting for the first spot in the pool Wojtasik/Kociołek lost to Neuschaeferova/Svolizova, but Gruszczyńśka/Wachowicz managed to turn this game in favour of Poland beating Hermannova/Stochlova 2-0 and then in the Golden Set.

The game between Austria and Slovenia opened the rivalry in Pool B. Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig and the Klinger sister earned pretty easy wins over Javornik/Marolt and Kotnik/Lovsin, respectively. The Slovenians tried their best against Italy Javornik/Marlot challenged Orsi Torth/Bianchi to play tie-break, but the Italian won this game as well as the match between Bianchin/Scampoli vs Kotnik/Lovsin. In the game for the top spot in the pool, the Italians won the duel, after beating Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig and w/o from the Klinger sisters.

Finland who is represented by Parkkinen/Prihti and Ahtiainen/Lahti topped the Pool C. First, the Finnish duo beat in straight sets Norwegians Steinsvag/Berntsn and Helland-Hansen/Olimstad. The Norwegians lost also to the Netherlands - Broring/van Driel and Piersma/Bekhuis. However, the race for the pool win turned into a three-tier. Broring/Van Driel upset Parkkinen/Prihti, but Ahtiainen/Lahti took a 2-0 win against Piersma/Bekhuis and then 15-8 in the Golden Set.

In Pool D, Ukraine's Makhno/Lunina and Hladun/Lazarenko triumphd over Lithuania's Grudzinskaite/Grudzinskaite and Dumbauskaite/Vasiliauskaite. The Lithuanian upset the local hopes Ozolina/Skrastina and Ozolina/Namike in straight sets. However, the Latvians fought hard until the end as Ozolina/Skrastina prevailed in tie-break over Makhno/Lunina. Hladun/Lazarenko, though, stopped first Ozolina/Namike and then in the Golden Set Ozolina/Skrastina.

All results and statistics are available HERE.