Tina and Anastasija continue to climb after Nuvali gold
Road to Paris
Few things will be more important in international beach volleyball in the next seven months than qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The race to be a part of sports’ greatest event is always fascinating and generates endless interesting storylines involving the top teams in the world. We will be following the Olympic qualification process throughout the entire period and will also present some articles that will help you understand how it works and introduce you to some of the stars of the sport who will be chasing something special on their Road to Paris.
Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova’s first victory on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour was worth more than the long-waited gold medals to them as the Latvians also managed to move up one spot in the FIVB Olympic Rankings following their title in Nuvali, the Philippines, on Sunday.
The rankings, which will determine 17 of the 24 teams that will compete in next year’s Paris Olympics, are formed by the total points earned by teams considering their best 12 results in international and continental tournaments played until June 10, 2024, when the 17 best-ranked men’s and women’s teams will secure a spot in the Games.
With the 800 points collected in the Challenge tournament held in Asia, the two-time European champions moved up in the Rankings for a second-straight week, elevating their total to 7,680 points and going from eighth to seventh – they had moved from tenth to eighth the João Pessoa Elite16 two weeks ago.
Tina and Anastasija, who became the first Latvian women to compete at the Olympics two years ago in Tokyo, are now in a strong position to make another appearance at the Games next year in Paris, where they will try to improve from their fourth-place finish in the Japanese capital.
Their opponents in the gold medal match in Nuvali, Spanish Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno continued in 13th following the event in Asia, but have now closed the gap to the teams ranked above them, amassing 6,600 points.
The same happened with fourth-placed French Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard, who started and ended the event in 14th place, but improved their Ranking points from 6,180 to 6,560.
Besides the three Nuvali Challenge semifinalists, eight other European duos appear inside the qualification zone – the Netherland’s Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam (fourth – 8,240 points), Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi (eighth – 7,440), Germany’s Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann (ninth – 6,900), Switzerland’s Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré (11th – 6,760), Switzerland’s Joana Mäder/Anouk Vergé-Dépré (12th – 6,740), Finland’s Taru Lathi/Niina Ahtiainen (15th - 6,160), Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene/Aine Raupelyte (16th – 6,100) and Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz (17th – 5,680).
Men’s winners Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz didn’t yet break into the qualification zone, but their victory in the Philippines pushed them closer to it. With the 800 points they took home from the event, which marked their second title in four tournaments, the Austrians now have 6,180 points and are the first team looking from the outside, in 18th place.
Bronze medalists Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas got to celebrate their best result in a tournament of this level, but are still far behind in the race for a spot at the Paris Games. The 720 points collected in Nuvali improved the Lithuanians’ total to 4,860, but they still appear in 24th place.
The English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin, who finished fourth in the Philippines, are in a similar spot, ranking 34th with 3,300 points, and have a big mountain to climb as the Olympic qualification period progresses.
There wasn’t much movement inside the qualification zone following the Nuvali Challenge and Europe has ten duos inside the top 17 – Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (first – 9,460 points), Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (second – 8,920), Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava (third – 8,440), Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler (fifth – 8,200), the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (seventh – 7,560), Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira (eighth - 7,500), Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst (tenth – 7,060), Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri (12th – 6,920), the Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde/Matthew Immers (14th – 6,480) and Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak (15th – 6,480).
The Nuvali Challenge was the last tournament to impact the FIVB Olympic Rankings in the 2023 season – this week’s Beach Pro Tour Finals won’t award any Olympic points. The next update will happen following the conclusion of the first tournament of the 2024 season.