Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia and Jake Gibb & Taylor Crabb of the USA kept their Olympic Qualification plans right on track in Chetumal, Mexico. Neither pair had played a full slate of FIVB World Tour events last summer but gold medals in Mexico proved they are still favorites to make an impact in Tokyo.

Jake and Taylor skipped some FIVB events last summer to focus on the American AVP tour. It was a good choice since they won four out of six tournaments. Taliqua and Mariafe dealt with injuries, so they didn’t compete at all after the World Championships in Hamburg. They’ve returned with a two strong results in a row. Both teams claimed 800 valuable points and $20,000 in prize money last week.

Taliqua Clancy unleashes a powerful jump serve against China in the gold medal match. Phot by FIVB.

Chetumal was a small island of beach volleyball activity in the middle of the long off season. It was the only winter event with the points needed to move the needle on Olympic Qualification places. Many teams decided not to play and opted for their off season rest and recovery programs. For those who came, however, over 27,000 world tour points were distributed.

Clancy and Artacho Del Solar are on the move

Mariafe and Taliqua shot up 11 spots in the Olympic Rankings into into 13 with their 800 point victory. They have only played in 10 qualifying events, so they are poised to climb much further. Mariafe’s precise passing allowed Taliqua to hit a devastating two ball again and again last week. Their tough serving, huge block and a very intelligent and quick defense make them very hard to beat.

Dutch pair Sanne Keizer & Madelein Meppelink had a great tournament and picked up a bronze medal. That moved them ahead seven places and into a tie for 10th in the Olympic rankings. In reality, their true Olympic qualification status is 7th place of 15 spots. That is because only two American and Brazilian teams can qualify and the World Champions are already in. Fan Wang & Xinyi Xia were silver medalists in Mexico and they are just 80 points behind Sana and Madelein. They were able to improve their rank by replacing a disappointing 25th place finish at an earlier four-star with this result.

American women battle for Tokyo places

The second American Olympic spot in Tokyo is hotly contested between three teams. Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brook Sweat continue to hold off the challenge of Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil. Both teams finished in 5th place in Chetumal, while Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman decided not to play this time. Less than 900 points separate those three teams. While all of them look to easily fit into the international top 15, sadly two will miss out on Tokyo. Kerri and Brook missed a golden opportunity to solidify their lead but gave up a commanding lead in the third set of their quarterfinal against the golden Australians.

The impressive fifth place finish for Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami of Japan highlighted some superb defense. Chetumal represents their best finish in a major FIVB event during the qualifying cycle. They nearly upset China and would have done even better. Japan receives a guaranteed spot in the Tokyo games and it looks like Miki and Megumi will claim it.

Miki Ishii of Japan elevates in the Chetumal quarter finals. Photo by FIVB.

Men’s Olympic rankings movement

On the men’s side the biggest Olympic ranking movers were Jake and Taylor. They climbed into the American poll position and 8th place overall with the gold medal. Three-time Olympian Jake Gibb also became the oldest gold medal winner in the history of the FIVB beach world tour. At 43 years old, he has now won seven FIVB golds in his career.

Jake Gibb attempts to block Robert Meeuwsen in the men’s final. Photo by FIVB.

Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands lost a tough three-set final. The Dutchies didn’t move up any places but they solidified their hold on 7th place by winning their second silver medal of the Olympic qualification period. They were able to trade a 320 point 17th place finish for 720 points last weekend. Brouwer and Meewsen have won a World Championship and an Olympic Bronze medal in their amazing partnership that started in 2011. Yet they don’t seem content with thier game and it seems to be evolving still. They employed a higher tempo in Mexico than we saw last summer and they were particularly impressive against Americans Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb in the semifinals.

Tri and Trevor picked up an important bronze medal and moved up three places in the rankings but still lost their lead in the country quota race to Trevor’s brother Taylor. The race for the top two American teams is going to be intense the rest of the way with Phil Daulhauser and Nick Lucena in a strong position even though they’ve only played in 10 tournaments.

Teams on the border line

Chilean cousins Esteban Grimalt & Marco Grimalt and Canadian Sams Pedlow & Schachter improved their rankings by finishing 5th and 9th respectively, but they have a big fight ahead of them if they wish to qualify. Fan favorites Italians Enrico Rossi & Adrian Carambula and Latvians Aleksandr Samoilovs and Janis Smedins both played in Mexico but finishing 17th wasn’t the result they needed to move into Olympic spots. The Latvians will rue the chances missed against Brazil’s George and Andre. They lost in the first round dropping a marathon 39 – 37 set. They scored 72 points in the match but failed to advance.