Alkass Digital
Doha, Qatar: The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is just about to pick up from where it left off. The first big stop after December’s 2023 Finals in Doha is set to begin today with Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan hoping for a title win.
As the world’s highest-calibre teams get together for the first time after the off-season, it will be exciting to see them in battle for Elite16 honours again, but as usual during the final stages of the Olympic qualification process, a lot of the focus will fall on the race for Paris 2024 tickets.
The men’s race for Olympic tickets seems to be a little bit tighter around the cut-off and the gray area in the men’s ranking seems to be a little bit wider.
The men’s Pool A in Doha features three of the few teams almost certain to compete under the Eiffel Tower: Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig, Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano and Germany’s Clemens Wickler & Nils Ehlers.
So do Pool B with qualified world champions Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner of Czechia, Andre Stein & George Wanderley of Brazil and Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands, and Pool C with Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava of Italy, Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak of Poland and, less so, Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Younousse and Tijan.
However, the Brazilians, the Italians and especially the Dutch have to be mindful of the strong challenge that may be presented by their compatriots, currently lower in the ranking.
One of these duos, Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot, the third highest ranked Dutch team at the moment, but with plenty of potential to climb up the ladder, will challenge reigning Olympic champions and the world’s number one team, Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum, in Pool C. Also in that pool is one of at least four US duos in the race for their country’s two Olympic quotas, Trevor Crabb & Theodore Brunner.
Crabb & Brunner are neck and neck with Chase Budinger & Miles Evans in the ranking. Slightly above them are Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh and slightly below them are Chaim Schalk & Tri Bourne. While Partain & Benesh will skip Doha, both of the other two pairs will take to the courts for Tuesday’s qualifier.