The Drawing of Lots held on Wednesday afternoon in The Hague mapped out the journey of the 16 countries per gender due to contest the final stage of the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup – the very last opportunity for European teams to fulfil their dream of competing at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“There are only strong nations and teams in this competition, so we will take it one round at a time, trying to stay as focused as possible. We have been preparing for this competition together with the other Dutch team and have identified some tactics that we are planning to use against our opponents depending on which nations we will get to play. We hope for a great atmosphere because the fans would certainly give us an extra boost.”
Christiaan Varenhorst
Player of the Netherlands
With hosts the Netherlands seeded at no. 1, the DOL followed suit, with the remaining teams / countries divided into a number of cups as per their respective results achieved in the second stage of the competition held this past May across three pools in Izmir (Turkey), Madrid (Spain), and Baden (Austria).
In an exciting ‘country vs. country’ format, two teams per nation will take to the Beach Volleyball courts set up in The Hague as of June 23, with the event reaching its climax on June 26, when the much coveted tickets to Tokyo 2020 will be at stake.
“The competition is tough and the eventual winners will be those who can remain cool in the most important moments of the tournament. We feel that we are playing for our country and not just for ourselves or for our team, and it is a great opportunity to fight for a spot to compete at the Olympics. We finished fifth at the 4-Star event in Ostrava and we took a lot of positive energy from that performance into the Continental Cup Final.”
Katja Stam
Player of the Netherlands
The eventual winners of the competition will secure one spot for their National Federation / NOC, thereby joining another 10 women’s and 12 men’s European teams already qualified through the FIVB Olympic Ranking, the 2019 edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships or the Qualification Tournament held back in September of 2019 in China.
Former Beach Volleyball player Marloes Wesselink hosted the DOL in The Hague. Two high-profile Dutch players, Christiaan Varenhorst and Katja Stam, attended the event as well, as the home stars very much hope to exploit the home-court advantage to repeat the success achieved by the Dutch women at the Continental Cup Final held in Stavanger, Norway, prior to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
CEV Vice-President Michel Everaert, who is the Secretary General of the Dutch Volleyball Federation (Nevobo), addressed a few words before the start of the DOL, recalling the many major international Beach Volleyball competitions successfully held in the Netherlands over the last decade, with his words echoed by the Deputy Mayor of The Hague, Hilbert Bredemeijer, himself a Beach Volleyball enthusiast.
For further information, visit the official event website https://beachroadtotokyo.cev.eu.
