Canada looking to add 4th beach v-ball team for Rio

Beach volleyball will return home to Copacabana Beach at next month's Rio Olympics, but this week four Canadian men are on sand two continents away in Sochi, Russia, trying to qualify to be there.

Josh Binstock, 35, and Sam Schachter, 26, along with Sam Pedlow, 29, and Grant O'Gorman, 22, form Canada's two teams for the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) World Continental Cup Olympic Qualification running July 6-10.

It's the last chance to grab one of two available berths for the summer Olympics and if they can do it, they'll add to the two women's teams and one men's team already locked in, giving Canada four pairs for the first time at an Olympics. 

The previous high was three; two men's teams and one women's team to the sport's debut at Atlanta 1996 when John Child and Mark Heese won bronze.

Major players

A fourth pair would elevate Canada to power status in the sport. As of now only Brazil, the U.S.A., and the Netherlands have a full complement of four teams booked for Rio.

In the sport's classic last-name nomenclature, it's usually Binstock and Schachter or Pedlow and O'Gorman, but for the tournament they'll be Canada 1 and Canada 2. 

In Sochi the Canadians will start with pool play against two-team combinations from other countries. Canada is in Pool A with Kazakhstan, Morocco, Russia, and Venezuela. Pool B consists of Belgium, China, Mexico, Sierra Leone, and Uruguay. 

The first-place team in each pool goes straight to one of two semifinals, while the second- and third-place teams will play a quarter-final.

The winners of each semifinal earn a berth for their country (there is no "final" as it isn't necessary for qualification.)

Canada's schedule this week

• Wednesday, July 6 vs. Venezuela
• Thursday, July 7 vs. Morocco
• Friday, July 8 vs. Kazakhstan
• Saturday, July 9 vs. Russia
• Saturday, July 9 Quarter-finals
• Sunday, July 10 Semifinals

If Canada does add another Olympic berth, there will be a playoff between two teams — Binstock and Schachter, of Richmond Hill, Ont., vs. Barrie, Ont.'s Pedlow and Toronto's O'Gorman — to see who represents Canada in Rio.

A lot has changed since London

Binstock, from Richmond Hill, Ont., was half of Canada's last Olympic men's team, playing in London with now retired partner Martin Reader in 2012 and finishing 17th. On the women's side, Andrée-Marie Lessard and Annie Martin were 19th.

The landscape, though, has changed remarkably since then.

Leading up to Rio it's the women who have been the most elite. The nimble Heather Bansley, from Waterdown, Ont., and her 6-foot-5 blocker Sarah Pavan, from Kitchener, Ont., are ranked No. 4 in the world and have been frequent medallists on the FIVB World Tour.

The second women's team, made up of Victoria, B.C.'s Jamie Broder, 31, and Toronto's Kristina Valjas, 29, actually led the World Tour at one point last season and won Canada's first World Tour medal. By the time the season was done, the two teams had finished on the podium six times.

And the success has continued. Bansley, 28, and Pavan, who will turn 30 on the semifinals day in Rio, were recently second at the elite Porec Major in Croatia. The already Olympic-bound men's pair of Ben Saxton, from Calgary, and Chaim Schalk, from Red Deer, won bronze.