Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa won gold for the third time in their partnership and Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum won gold for the third week in a row. A repurposed coal mine in Ostrava, Czech Republic made a very cool setting for the FIVB World Tour latest four-star event which saw most of the top men’s and women’s teams competing. With the calendar flipping over to June, all the focus of the beach volleyball world has shifted to the World Championships in Hamburg. Ostrava was a good indication of which teams are going to enter with the confidence and momentum required to win the year’s biggest event. The group draw for the World Championships happens later today and nobody will want to be drawn into a group with either of the winners in Ostrava.

Brazilian Women dominate in Ostrava

Agatha won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and as her 20 year old partner, Duda, gains experience, the chances of adding to her Olympic medal collection next summer look very good. Duda has been considered the future of Brazilian beach volleyball for a while and is an under-21 World Champion from 2017. She won that World Championship with her opponent in the Ostrava final, Ana Patricia Silva. Having Agatha as a partner is helping Duda realize her potential at a rapid pace. Duda is a defender, but she has the height of Agatha (both 1.83 meters / six feet tall). She plays defense with great speed and can hit in transition and attack the second ball like few veterans on the tour can. The two won last season’s world tour finals in Hamburg, sharing the $150,000 prize, so they know how to win on the big stage. The final in the Czech Republic was a battle with fellow Brazilians and the current number one team on the Olympic rankings table, Ana Patricia and Rebecca. The depth and extremely bright future of beach volleyball for Brazilian women was on full display. The result brings the two pairs to a tie for third place in the World Rankings at the moment. Agatha and Duda finished this week’s tournament with the same two fixtures as Jinjian a week before, but with a completely different result. Last week they lost to Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat in a close three set semifinal before dropping the bronze medal match to Ana Patricia and Duda. In Ostrava they overran the Americans in the semifinal before winning a well fought final. Dutch partners Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink had a fantastic tournament and picked up the bronze medal.

Agatha blocks Rebecca on the way to gold in all Brazilian final. Photo by FIVB

Mol and Sorum do it again

The men’s tournament saw very familiar winners, although the other finalists were a welcome surprise. The Czech fans were thrilled to have Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner as finalists coming through the difficult field in fine form. It was the Czech’s third silver medal but the first in a four-star tournament, so certainly their best result to date. They managed to thrill their home fans by winning the first set against the Beach Volley Vikings. Their dream run came to an end when Anders started to block at the net like powerful jungle cat and Christian ran down every shot. Eventually the Norwegians wear down every opponent they face. The Norwegian’s victory over Russian’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy in the semifinal was a battle of the two best teams so far in 2019 and avenged one of only two losses they have suffered this year. Mol and Sorum have a remarkable 30 – 2 match record during the Olympic qualifying period which started in September of 2018. Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl got past the Russians for a bronze medal.

David Schweiner thrilling the home fans by getting the ball past Bryl in the semifinal. Photo by FIVB.

Olympic Rankings Update

The women’s Olympic rankings didn’t see any changes in the top 6, but that doesn’t mean the results didn’t matter. Walsh Jennings and Sweat increased their lead in the American race by going a round further than April Ross and Alix Klineman. The American race got even more competitive as Sara Hughes and Summer Ross and Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil moved up due to 9th place finishes. Agatha and Duda took a long break after last year’s world tour finals, so they don’t have many events during the Olympic qualifying cycle, but they are making a real charge now. Even though they have only played in four tournaments, their 24 place rise has them tied for 16th place with fellow Brazilians Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado who also finished 9th in Ostrava. Bronze medalists Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink moved up 23 spots and now hold the 35th spot and third among women from The Netherlands. On the flip side, Barbara Hermanova and Marketa Slukova failed to take advantage of their home tournament and finished a disappointing 25th place, leaving them 20th in the Olympic rankings. Germany’s Ludwig and Kozuch also failed to make an impact and finished 25th ahead of the all important World Championships in Hamburg

For the men’s Olympic rankings, Poland’s Michal Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek moved into third place with their bronze medal finish while Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner climbed 12 spots into 9th place thanks to their silver medal. Brazilian men Evandro Goncalves and Bruno Schmidt (5th in Ostrava), Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho (5th in Ostrava), and Andre Loyola and George Wanderley (9th in Ostrava) continued a rapid climb toward Olympic spots as they battle one another for the two spots available to Brazilian men. Germany’s Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler climbed 10 spots to the edge of Olympic qualifying places thanks to a fifth place finish.

European Continental Cup

For teams that finish outside of the top 15 in the Olympic Rankings, the Continental Cups offer a path to Tokyo. Last weekend two men’s teams and two women’s teams took a step down that path in Ireland. Congratulations to the Slovak and Estonian women and the Lithuanian and Ukrainian men on advancing to phase two of the European Continental Cup. The women overcame Denmark and Ireland while the men beat Ireland and Scotland.

FIVB Two-Star, Silk Road Nantong

There was also a two-star women’s only event in China last weekend. The Silk Road Nantong event was a great opportunity for teams that aren’t quite ready to play in four-star qualifiers to gain experience and all important FIVB World Tour points. Jingzhe Wang and Shuhui Wen of China did both that by winning 400 points and a gold medal. It was the second victory for the pair in China and for Wen it was the second time to win in Nantong, after winning the tournament in 2017 with Xinyi Xia. Brazil’s Carolina Horta and Angela Lavalle picked up the silver, further demonstrating the depth of the South American country’s women’s teams. Russia’s Dabizha and Rudykh took the bronze while Poland’s Gruszczynska and Gromadowska took fourth.