The Olympic rankings saw some movement last week after the three-star in Qinzhou, China. Last month Brazil announced their four Olympic teams, the FIVB released the calendar for 2020 and the African and Asian federations updated their Continental Cup programs.

Borger and Sude strike gold in China

The Qinzhou Open attracted top teams to an FIVB event for the first time since the Olympic Qualification Tournament in September. Germans Karla Borger and Julia Sude made the most of their trip to China by winning gold for the first time as partners. It was an impressive feat with the women’s field full of top teams. Karla and Julia defeated Brooke Sweat and beach legend Kerri Walsh Jennings in the final after eliminating four straight Chinese teams. That included a hard fought 3-set quarterfinal win over top seeded Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia. Borger and Sude moved into a slightly more comfortable position in the Olympic rankings and opened up some space between themselves and their German rivals in the race for Tokyo.

Karla Borger elevates to hit past Kerri Walsh Jennings at the in the Qinzhou gold medal match. Photo by FIVB.

The silver for Sweat and Walsh Jennings was a very important result. Their three closest America rivals for Tokyo also played well in China. Finishing higher than Kelly Claes & Sarah Sponcil and Kelley Larsen & Emily Stockman in every tournament is the best to ensure their Olympic dreams. Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar returned to the tour and picked up a fourth place finish after missing most of last summer’s big events. They have only played in nine qualifying tournaments because of an injury, but they’ll be flying up the Olympic rankings now that they are healthy.

The third place finish for Shuhui Wen and Jingzhe Wang was a huge result for them. They have partnered to win and impressive five FIVB gold medals at two-stars, but winning a medal in a three-star against some of the world’s finest and outperforming their Chinese rivals makes them a team to watch for the future.

Swiss Men cruise to gold

Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson entered Qinzhou as top seeds and walked away with their first gold. Gerson stuck gold in his 75th FIVB event, number 25 with Heidrich. They got their 2020 season (yes, it is officially a 2020 event in November 2019) off to a great start and jumped into a Tokyo 2020 spot with the victory. The men’s field wasn’t nearly as strong as the women’s and it is unlikely that any of the other teams will play in next summer’s Olympics.

Adrian Heidrich blocks a Russian attack in the Qinzhou semifinal. Photo by FIVB.

Gibb and Taylor Crabb into Tokyo Places

Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb of the USA climbed the Olympic rankings without traveling to China. They earned 600 points at a NORCECA event the Dominican Republic in early October. With that result they also find themselves in the Tokyo places for the first time this quad. The American men have an exciting three team race with only two spots available. At the moment, Try Bourne and Taylor’s big brother Trevor lead the way, but they will be under a lot of pressure from Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser over the next seven months.

Brazil names their four teams

I love the excitement and drama of the Olympic qualification races. The battle among the American teams is going to capture a lot of attention here in the coming months. The Brazilians, on the other hand, are taking a different approach to the process and decided to name their teams much earlier than the FIVB requires. On October 17th, the Brazilian Federation announced that Agatha, Duda, Ana Patricia, Rebecca, Alison, Alvaro Filho, Evandro and Bruno will represent their country in Tokyo. These four teams will all be gold medal favorites next summer and I guess they can now focus on that task without the distraction of qualification.

The decision was made by considering the results from all of the four and five-star events since last February. The four places assumes that Brazil will secure two places in each gender for the Tokyo games. Yeah, you’re right, they don’t have anything to worry about.

Three of the four Brazilian men have played in at least one Olympics before. Bruno and Alison won Gold in Rio but now play with different partners. Alison also has a silver medal from the 2012 games in London. Alvero Filho will be making his Olympic debut in Tokyo. For the women, Agatha returns to the Olympics after winning a silver in 2016. The other three women will be making their first Olympic appearances.

Alison blocks Canada’s Sam Pedlow in Vienna last summer. He will be looking for a third straight Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020. Photo by FIVB.

Now it’s time for all the teams whose Olympic dreams didn’t materialize to commence the annual Brazilian partner swap. It is a dance that is as old as international beach volleyball.

FIVB 2020 calendar

The FIVB released the 2020 beach volleyball calendar in October. As hoped, there are a lot of big events before the Olympic qualification window closes next June. Including next week’s Chetumal Open in Mexico, there will be 10 four-star events and the five-star in Rome to close out the qualification season. Throw in 4 more three-stars and that is a ton of points left to be earned. A partnership with zero points as of today could amass enough points to qualify for Tokyo. Chaim Schalk, are you reading this?

2020 calendar from FIVB.org.

Continental Cup updates

Finally, the Asian and African confederations updated their Continental Cup info. The new information was updated on the Beach Volley Blog Continental Cup pages.