Melissa & Brandie jump 23 spots up the World Ranking
Hodges & Schubert in action at Jurmala centre court
This week’s update of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking was significantly marked not only by the results of last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Jurmala, but also by the expiration of the points collected from last year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome. It was also highlighted by Jurmala men’s champions Thomas Hodges & Zachery Schubert of Australia making the top 10 for the first time.
Hodges & Schubert collected 800 points along with their Jurmala medals, but had to drop 340 with their ninth best result within the past year to net 460 points to a new total of 5,360 and rise nine positions up the ranking from last week’s 19th place. The Australian pair’s previous best was the 17th place they held in April and May of this year.
Jurmala silver medallists Andre Stein & George Wanderley of Brazil picked up 760 points from last week’s Challenge event, but lost the 1,280 points that came with their Rome 2022 bronze, dropping to a new total of 5,620. However, this did not affect their ranking and they stayed in seventh place, only now they are sharing it with Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt.
The expiration of World Championship points had the most negative effect on another Brazilian team, Rome 2022 runners-up Renato Lima & Vitor Felipe. Despite their bronze medal in Jurmala last week, which brought them 720 points, their total actually went down 720 points, because they lost the 1,440 that came with their World Championship silver. As a result, Renato & Vitor Felipe descended from number eight to number 13 in the World Ranking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA7subEnQA&t=1s
The only other effect this week’s update had on the top 10 was that Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak overtook Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen and Czechs Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner for the third place, and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava, who competed in Jurmala, shifted a spot up to number nine. World champions Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway suffered a net loss of 880 points, but still comfortably top the World Ranking, 1,480 points clear of second-placed David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden.
All four of the Jurmala women’s semifinalists improved their positions in the World Ranking. Gold medallists Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, who joined forces recently and did not play at last year’s World Championship together, netted the entire amount of 800 points that came with the Challenge trophy to leap 23 positions up to number 34 on a total of 3,320 points.
Jurmala runners-up Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland enjoyed a net gain of 120 points to move a spot up the chart to number 15, which is the best they have had since last June.
Despite the bronze they took at home in Jurmala, Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina suffered a net loss of 80 points. Still, they moved up the table from number nine to number seven, overtaking Switzerland’s Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli and USA’s Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil.
Brazil’s Taina Bigi & Victoria Lopes, who finished fourth in Jurmala, pocketed half of the 680 points they earned, enough to ascend from number 19 to number 11 in the World Ranking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkUTErigdvU
The top three in the ranking, world champions Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil, Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia and Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg of Brazil, all lost points, but kept their positions in the table. However, two American duos capitalized on others losing ground to slide up right below the top three. Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss improved from fifth to fourth, just 140 points short of Barbara & Carol, while Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng surged from eighth to fifth.
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