Competition continues in Russian capital for Beijing berth

(BEIJING, June 3) -- There are 38 days to go before the Olympic beach volleyball event kicks off in Beijing, but only 18 days remain of its qualification process for Beijing 2008.

For the men's teams competing in the Moscow 2008 Grand Slam qualifier on Wednesday, this was a chance to boost their Beijing 2008 qualification chances. Three-time Portuguese Olympians Joao Brenha and Miguel Maia and New Zealanders Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman, who are trying to qualify for Beijing 2008, advanced straight into the 32-team main draw without participating in Wednesday's qualifier.

A total of 24 teams can qualify for Beijing 2008. Brenha and Maia, who finished fourth at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, currently hold a total of 1,580 points, 340 points behind the 24th-ranked team on the Beijing list, while Lochhead and Pitman have accumulated 1,460 points for their best eight finishes at the SWATCH FIVB World Tour. In order to improve their chances for Beijing 2008, both Brenha/Maia and the Kiwis need to finish ninth or higher in Moscow.

Li Jian and Zhou Shun of China, who successfully qualified for the first two SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam events in Berlin and Paris, came to Moscow as the 24th-ranked team on the Olympic qualification list, but lost Wednesday's qualifying match 17-21, 31-29 and 24-22 to Anders Lund Hoyer and Bo Soderberg of Denmark, failing to advance to the main draw competition and losing the chance to add extra points to their current total of 1,920 points.

Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori of Japan, on the other hand, with their 1880 points secured, expect to tie Li and Zhou by advancing to the elimination bracket on Friday. The Japanese duo finished ninth last week in Norway, thus coming close to Li and Zhou, decreasing the gap to 40 points. If they finish ninth or higher this week in Moscow, the Japanese pair can move ahead of the Chinese duo and even threaten Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs of Latvia who rank 22nd on the Olympic qualifying list.

By winning the qualifying matches on Wednesday, Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst of Austria and Guilherm Deulofeu and Yannick Salvetti of France, also see themselves in a more hopeful position to win tickets to Beijing 2008. Benjamin Insfran and Franco Neto of Brazil and Aldo Miramontes and Juan Virgen of Mexico also qualified for the Main Draw, though they are not chasing an Olympic berth.