Lausanne, May 16 (ONA) The International Volleyball Federation issued the new system for qualifying beach volleyball teams for the World Olympic Games, which was postponed from its previous date in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic until next year 2021.
The Executive Board of the International Volleyball Federation approved the number of qualified teams, which are 24 for men and 24 for women without change. Five teams have secured their places in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which are the Russian men's team for being the world champion in 2019, and Italy and Latvia teams from the Tokyo qualifying championship in addition to the host Japan team.
The teams of the world will compete for 20 vacant places, 5 of which will be awarded to the winners of the continental qualifiers and 15 for qualifying through the volleyball Olympic rankings under the existing system. The new system includes extending the qualification for the Olympic Beach Volleyball Games with world rankings points to June 13, 2021, with the list of the best 15 teams to be published on June 14, 2021.
“We believe that these changes to the beach volleyball qualification system for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 represent a balanced, fair and universal approach which will ensure that top performing athletes have the opportunity to qualify for the Games,” said FIVB President Ary Graça following the announcement of the new system.
“With this announcement, we are giving beach volleyball players certainty of the roadmap for the lead up to Tokyo 2020, and so they continue to focus on maintaining their health and wellbeing at this time.”
The International Volleyball Federation announced earlier that the international competitions would be suspended until next July as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and the global tours of various groups would be launched when the situation is safe, and all athletes are allowed to participate.
At the same time, the International Federation works closely with national federations and beach championships organizers to develop the beach volleyball calendar 2020/2021, where all tournaments will be available and will be announced later.
(ONA)