The men’s competition features three pools where pairs from Germany (B), Russia (E) and Ukraine (D) are the only unbeaten teams with 3-0 match marks after the completion of play here Tuesday at the Beach Volleyball venue in the Nanjing Sports Park Complex.
The other three pools have a tie atop the standings. Two of the groups (A and F) could decide the out-come of assembled tandems Friday with the winner of each of the matches in line to secure a first-round “bye” when single-elimination play begins Sunday. Pool C’s leaders play Thursday and could decide the top team in the group depending on Friday’s final matches.
With 3-0 match marks to date, Uruguay and Kazakhstan are tied for the lead in Pool A, France and Puerto Rico in Pool C and Indonesia and Venezuela in Pool E. In addition to the pool winners earning a “bye” in the first-round of elimination play, the two “best” second-place teams will earn a “free” advancement to the second-round of bracket competition. Here is the breakdown for the men’s competition.
Pool A - The teams of Yegor Dmitriyev/Sergey Polichshuk of Kazakhstan and Marco Cairus/Mauricio Vieyto of Uruguay (24) must defeat teams from Finland and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Thursday to set up match of unbeatens Friday. The Finnish pair of Miro Maattanen/Santeri Siren are 2-1 in the competition with their only setback being to the Uruguay tandem Monday.
Pool B - Niklas Rudolf and Eric Stadie are the only unbeaten team in the group with remaining matches against Congo and New Zealand. Brazilians Arthur Mariano/George Wanderley and Kiwi’s Nate Moore/Kahurangi Robinson are 2-1 in the pool. The South Americans lost to the Germans Monday and defeated Moore and Robinson Tuesday.
Pool C - The pairs of Arnaud Gauthier-Rat/Arnaud Loiseau of France and Sergio Figueroa/Daniel Rivera of Puerto Rico met Thursday for the out-right leadership in the pool. Luis Bramont-Arias and Jimy Heredia of Peru are 2-1 and challenge the French Friday after losing to the Puerto Ricans Tuesday.
Pool D - Illia Kovaliov and Oleh Plotnytskiy of Ukraine are alone at the top of the group with a 3-0 record. The Ukrainians finish with matches against 2-1 teams on Thursday (Surin Jongklang/Banlue Nakprakhong of Thailand) and Friday (Jake MacNeil/Andrew Richards of Canada). Santiago Aulisi and Leandro Aveiro of Argentina are 2-1 and play the Thai’s on Friday. The Argentinians have defeated the Canadians and lost to the Ukrainians.
Pool E - Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin of Russia are 3-0 in their group and conclude play against 1-2 Guatemala Thursday and 2-1 Sri Lanka Friday. Mathias Berntsen and Anders Mol of Norway, who are 2-1 and lost to the Russians Monday, meet Chamika Mallawa and Siddihaluge of Sri Lanka Thursday as both teams are still in contention for a possible “bye” when elimination play starts.
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After the completion of group play for the men and women participants Friday, the top four teams from each group advance to the single-elimination bracket rounds starting next Sunday. The bracket schedule will be determined Saturday morning when the drawing of positions will be held at the Nanjing Sports Park Complex.
The women’s semi-final and medal matches will be played Tuesday followed by the men’s “final four” matches the next day at the 2,000-seat Beach Volleyball venue. More than 3,300 tons of sand was used to build the four competition and two warm-up courts at the Beach Volleyball venue at the Nanjing Sports Park Complex. The sand is from Hainan Island in southeastern China, the same place where the materials came from to build the courts at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.