Beach Volleyball: Australia and Qatar Win AVC Continental Cup Final

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Australia and Qatar booked their tickets to the Olympics after victories at the AVC Continental Cup Final. The Continental Cup features nations with two teams each facing off against each other. Each nation designates a team 1 and a team 2. In the first two matches team 1 faces off against the other nation’s team 2. In the event that the series is split a final match using any team is played. In total 8 nations faced off against each other in a single elimination tournament. The winner of the Asian/Oceania Continental Cup qualifies to the Olympics. The final of the Beach Volleyball Asian/Oceania Continental Cup was held in Cairns, Australia from June 24th to June 26th 2016.

In the women’s quarter-final, China, Vanuatu and Australia all won their matches 2-0 against Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei respectively. It was the match between Japan and Thailand which required three matches where Japan’s top team prevailed over Thailand’s top team in a 2-0 match. Both semi-final matches required a third match as Australia and Vanuatu booked their spot to the final with a 2-1 victory over Japan and China respectively. Australia would go on the claim the sole Olympic berth with a 2-0 victory over Vanuatu. China won the bronze medal after defeating Japan 2-0.

The men’s quarter-final matches had Qatar, Kazakhstan and Australia sweep the series to win over Iran, Japan and Indonesia respectively. China and New Zealand required a third match where China won 2-1. The semi-final saw a bit of an upset as top ranked Australia was defeated 2-0 by China. Qatar also reached the final with a 2-0 victory over Kazakhstan. The final saw Qatar secure the Olympic quota with a 2-0 victory over China. This will be Qatar’s debut in beach volleyball at the Olympics. Kazakhstan won the bronze medal after defeating Australia 2-1.

There will be one more chance for teams to qualify to the Olympics, at the Final Olympic Continental Cup. The top two teams which failed to qualify; China and Kazakhstan for the men and Vanuatu and China for the women will battle it out for the final spots.

 

Quotas by Nations

  • Australia – 1
  • Qatar – 1

 

References

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