Olympics: Beach Volleyball Pools

Canadian duo Binstock/Reader (in blue) will play in pool F against Brazil, Norway, and Great Britain (Photo: Volleyball Source Magazine)

The men and women beach volleyball teams finally know their opponents in pool play at the London Games. This Thursday in Klagenfurt, Austria, The FIVB broadcast the drawing of lots to determine the six groups of each tournament. With the pools finalized, the schedule for pool play will be released by FIVB on Monday.

The teams were split equally into six pools, playing each team in their group, with the top two advancing to the single-elimination knockout phase along with the two best third-placed teams. The remaining four third-place teams will then compete in playoff matches to determine which pairs will fill the final two places in the first round.

Canadians Josh Binstock and Martin Reader will play favourites Pedro Cunha and Ricardo Santos, from Brazil, in pool F (Santos is a three-time Olympic medalist, having won gold in Athens 2004 playing with Emanuel Rego). The group is completed by John Garcia-Thompson and Steven Grotowski, from Great Britain, and Tarjei Skarlund and Martin Spinnangr, from Norway.

Canada will be represented on the women’s side by Marie-Andree Lessard and Annie Martin, who will play Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin, from Great Britain, Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti, from Italy, and also the Russian team with Ekaterina Khomyakova and Evgenia Ukolova, in pool F. The Italians are one of the world’s top teams.

Sixteen teams have qualified for the Games through the Olympic Ranking, with five more joining as winners of the AVC, CAVB, CEV, CSV and NORCECA Continental Cup Finals and two from the World Cup Olympic Qualification Tournament. Great Britain has also been granted a berth as hosts.

Following are the pool assignments for the beach volleyball competition at the 2012 Olympic Games:

London 2012 Beach Volleyball Men's Pools

Pool A

	Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, Brazil
	Jefferson Bellaguarda/Patrick Heuscher, Switzerland
	Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy
	Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria

Pool B

	Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, United States
	Adrian Gavira Collado/Pablo Herrera, Spain
	Petr Benes/Presysl Kubala, Czech Republic
	Kentaro Asahi/Katsuhiro Shiratori, Japan

Pool C

	Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann, Germany
	Penggen Wu/Linyin Xu, China
	Sebastian Chevallier/Sascha Heyer, Switzerland
	Serguei Prokopiev/Konstantin Semonov, Russia

Pool D

	Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal, United States
	Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland
	Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslans Sorokins, Latvia
	Freedom Chiya/Grant Goldschmit, South Africa

Pool E

	Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil, Netherlands
	Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany
	Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins, Latvia
	Igor Hernandez/Jesus Villafane, Venezuela

Pool F

	John Garcia-Thompson/Steven Grotowski, Great Britain
	Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
	Tarjei Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr, Norway
	Josh Binstock/Martin Reader, Canada