Canadian men must rebound in beach volleyball to maintain Rio hopes
Josh Binstock, Sam Schachter need 1 win in pool play at Hamburg Major
Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter's hopes of clinching a second spot for Canada in the men's beach volleyball tournament at the Rio Olympics in August is down to a must-win scenario Thursday at the Hamburg Major.
They opened pool play with a 2-1 loss (21-23, 21-18, 10-15) to Latvia's Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs in a 45-minute match early Wednesday morning at the Am Rothenbaum tennis stadium in Germany.
Binstock and Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., need to win at least one of their two matches Thursday to keep their Olympic chances alive.
The Rio field is comprised of 24 teams per gender, including the top 15 from each on the Olympic ranking as of June 13, and excluding the Brazilians, who are assured one spot per gender as host country and one per gender as 2015 FIVB world champions.
Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton entered the Hamburg Major having secured one of a maximum Olympic two spots for Canada's men with a 13th-place ranking and 4,820 Olympic qualifying points, 570 more than No. 17 Binstock and Schachter, who are 360 points shy of a Rio berth.
Seeded 20th this week, Binstock and Schachter will finish pool play against No. 4 Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands at 3 a.m. ET and the Greek tandem of Georgios Kotssilianos and Nikos Zoupanis, the 29th seed, at 8 a.m. ET.
Pedlow, O'Gorman miss main draw
A third Canadian pair, Sam Pedlow and Grant O'Gorman, began the week with 3,150 qualifying points. They split their two qualification matches on Tuesday but didn't finish among the top eight of 32 teams to advance to Wednesday and Thursday's main draw.
Canada has clinched two spots for Rio on the women's side. Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley rank third in the Olympic qualifying process, excluding Brazilians, with 6,030 points. Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas rank 10th with 4,640 points, well ahead of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke.
Three teams in each four-team pool advance to Friday's elimination bracket, which includes two rounds for the men and three for the women.
Saturday's schedule includes the men's quarter-finals along with women's semifinals and medal matches. The men's competition ends Sunday.
Other Canadian results Wednesday:
Men
- Matteo Ingrosso/Paolo Ingrosso (Italy) def. Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton (Canada) 2-0 (21-18, 21-17)
Women
- Sarah Pavan/Heather Bansley (Canada) def. Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarkova (Slovakia) 2-0 (21-9, 21-17)
- Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (Germany) def. Pavan/Bansley 2-1 (21-17, 12-21, 15-8)
- Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke (Canada) def. Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy (Australia) 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 24-22)
- Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel (Netherlands) def. Humana-Paredes/Pischke 2-0 (21-13, 21-15)
- Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler (Germany) def. Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas (Canada) 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-13)
- Broder/Valjas def. Vasiliki Arvaniti/Panagiota Karagkouni (Greece) 2-1 (21-12, 15-21, 15-5)