Feb. 05, 2023: Canada earned a fifth and ninth place at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Doha, Qatar as beach volleyball kicks off its Olympic qualification cycle.
The new Canadian partnership of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson reached the quarterfinals after coming second in their pool. They were defeated in the quarterfinals 2-0 by Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of Netherlands. Stam and Schoon went on to win the gold medal on the women’s side on Sunday over Swiss pair Brunner/ Hüberli.
In their second Beach Pro Tour tournament as a pair, Sarah Pavan and Sophie Bukovec reached the playoffs, but were eliminated by 1-2 (21-17, 12-21, 15-17) by Ana Patrícia/Duda of Brazil to finish ninth.
Jake MacNeil and Alex Russell of Canada were entered on the men’s side but did not qualify for the Doha main draw. Reigning Olympic and world champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum from Norway won the men’s gold medal.
The FIVB Olympic Ranking will take into account the 12 best performances achieved by a pair in the window from January 2023 (the first event that offers points is the Elite16 tournament in Doha) to June 10 2024. The top 17 ranked teams (per gender) will qualify for the Olympics alongside one team from the host country (France), the 2023 World Champions and the five teams that win the Continental Olympic Tournaments.
For more on the Beach Pro Tour :
https://en.volleyballworld.com/beachvolleyball/competitions/beach-pro-tour/
Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender jskender@volleyball.ca
(613) 794-7676
Photo: Volleyball World
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