There are the trappings of officialdom. They have been defined the groups of the Olympic beach volleyball tournaments that will be staged on the sand of the fascinating setting of the Tour Eiffel Stadium, from July 27th to August 10th. In fact, it was held in Paris, Pool draw which has made known the journey of the couples involved in the Five Circles event.
An event where Italy will also be present and with ambitions. There will be three local tandems who have achieved the objective of Olympic qualification, i.e. those formed by Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi in the women’s field; from Paul Nicolai/Samuel Cottafava it’s yes Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula in the male one.
Menegatti and Gottardi are part of Pool A, sharing the Olympic adventure with the Brazilians Ana Patricia/Dudathe Spanish ones Liliana/Paula and the Egyptians Marwa/D. Elgobashy. In the competition reserved for men, always Pool A which coincides with the blue colours, that is with Nicolai and Cottafava who will face the Swedes Åhman/Hellvigi qatarioti Cherif/Ahmed and the Australians Nicolaidis/Carracher. Pool B, instead, for Ranghieri and Carambula, opposed to the Norwegians Mol/Sørumthat is, the Tokyo Olympic champions, to the Dutch Van De Velde/Immers and to the Chileans Marco and Esteban Grimalt.
What does the regulation provide? In each of the two tables, the 24 teams that will take part in the Games will be divided into six groups of four, which will compete with the Round Robin formula. The six winning couples of the Pools, the six runners-up and the two best third-placed teams will advance to the knockout stage. To these will be added the two winners of the “lucky loser playoffs”, who will see the remaining four teams that finished third in their groups at the starting line.
