Josh Binstock, Sam Schachter's Rio Olympic hopes take hit
Continental Cup is Canadians' route to try to secure final men's beach v-ball berth
Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter didn't clinch a second men's Olympic beach volleyball spot for Canada this week, but their hopes for Rio weren't dashed at the Hamburg Major.
The Canadian pair will shift their focus to the upcoming NORCECA Continental Cup competition, scheduled for June 22-26. The Richmond Hill, Ont. duo dropped a 2-0 decision (21-18, 21-13) to Reinder Nummerdor and Christian Varenhorst of the Netherlands in Round 1 of the elimination bracket on Friday in Germany.
To qualify for Rio, Binstock and Schachter would have to win that competition involving players from Canada and other countries within North and Central America along with the Caribbean. The second- and third-place finishers from the NORCECA event advance to the Continental Cup Finals from July 6-10 in Sochi, Russia, where the two final Olympic spots will be decided.
The Rio field consists 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, who began this week ranked 13th with 4,820 Rio qualifying points, secured the first Olympic spot for Canada's men, despite a 2-0 loss (21-19, 21-8) to Brazil's Pedro Solberg and Evandro Goncalves Oliveira Jr. in Round 1 on Friday.
Today <a href="https://twitter.com/BenSaxton13">@bensaxton13</a> and I officially qualified for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Olympics?src=hash">#Olympics</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rio?src=hash">#Rio</a>! It's been a crazy… <a href="https://t.co/dX8UDm0jks">https://t.co/dX8UDm0jks</a>
—@chaimschalkSchalk and Saxton's best finish this season is a fifth-place showing in April at the Xiamen Open in China.
Congrats <a href="https://twitter.com/HeatherBansley">@HeatherBansley</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPavan">@SarahPavan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieBroder">@JamieBroder</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KristinaValjas">@KristinaValjas</a> Officially <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rio2016?src=hash">#Rio2016</a> bound. Also to <a href="https://twitter.com/chaimschalk">@chaimschalk</a> for carrying me there.
—@BenSaxton13Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley, along with Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas, have officially sewn up the two available Olympic spots for Canada on the women's side.
Pavan and Bansley finished atop Pool E in group play earlier this week to earn a bye to Round 2 of the elimination bracket, but were downed 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) by the American tandem of April Ross and Kerri Walsh on Friday.
Fellow Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke knocked off Germany's Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) in Round 1 before being blanked 21-18, 21-16 by Germany's Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, who went 3-0 in pool play.
Humana-Paredes and Pischke are expected to compete in Continental Cup in hopes of qualifying for the Rio tournament, which runs Aug. 6-18 at Copacabana Beach.
Broder and Valjas made a first-round exit Friday, falling 2-0 (21-17, 12-21, 15-5) to Ross and Walsh.