Forty-eight beach volleyball teams for the Beijing Olympics were announced later Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland with U.S. teams topping both the men's and women's standing, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) said in a press release.
The teams, equal for men and women, will be competing at the Chaoyang Park in Beijing from August 9-22 for Olympic medals.
Qualification events were finished Monday in Marseille, France, but the FIVB was awaiting the entry form by each National Olympic Committee to confirm the list for Beijing.
The qualifications were based on the best eight SWATCH FIVB World Tour finishes from January 2007 through July 20, 2008. A total of 29 men's and 28 women's qualifying events were held in the past 15 months.
A country quota regulation, under which each NOC could send maximum two teams for the Olympics, and a continental quota, which allows one team from each continent to participate even if it fails to qualify with the World Tour results, are also put into consideration in producing the qualification list.
In the women's list, U.S. pair Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, the Athens Olympics gold medalists, is on the top with 6,440 points, followed by Chinese pair Tian Jia and Wang Jie, which will replace Walsh and May-Treanor to be the top seed in the Olympic competition as the hosts. Zhang Xi/Xue Chen will also compete for the host country.
Two Brazilian duos, Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes/Renata Ribiero are also among the best six in the list.
Another U.S. pair, Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, is placed sixth.
Judith Deister Augoustides and Vitalila Nel of South Africa acquired a berth thanks to the continental quota.
Germany, Norway, Austria, Greece and Cuba each will also send two women teams to Beijing.
In the men's section, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers are topping the qualification list, followed by two Brazilian teams, Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego, defending Olympic champions, and Marcio Araujo/Fabio Luiz Magalhaes.
Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil of the Netherlands and Julius Brink /Christoph Dieckmann of Germany, ranking fourth and sixth respectively, will also be seeds in preliminary round draw.
China's Xu Linyin/Wu Penggen, ranking fifth, will be first seed in the preliminary round draw at the Olympics.
Besides the United States and Brazil, nations sending two men teams include the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Angola's Emanuel Fernandes and Morais Abreu qualified thanks to the continental quota.
The drawing for the preliminary round will be held in Gstaad, Switzerland on July 26.
(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2008)