Olympic spots at stake as Men’s and Women’s Continental Tokyo Volleyball Qualification process gets

Both the men’s and women’s campaigns will be fought out during 5 to 12 January to determine which nations progress to The Games to be held in Japan later this year.

The Men’s Continental Tokyo Volleyball Qualification process will see tournaments held in Berlin, Germany (European Confederation, 5 to 10 January), Jiangmen, China (Asian Confederation, 7 to 12 January), Cairo, Egypt (African Confederation, 7 to 11 January), Santiago, Chile (South American Confederation, 10 to 12 January) and Vancouver, Canada (North, Central America and Caribbean Confederation, 10 to 12 January).

In the European Confederation Bulgaria opened their Pool B campaign in Berlin on Monday with a spectacular 3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-8) win over France. With both teams putting in a lot of power from the serving line, the Bulgaraians hammered a total of 27 aces over the five sets of play with captain Viktor Yosifov leading the way with four. In the deciding set, opposite Tsvetan Sokolov hammered five points, including the tiebreak’s only two aces. With a total of 23 points to his name, he topped the charts of the match, followed by French counterpart Jean Patry with 20.

In Pool B’s early match also on Monday, Serbia recovered from Sunday’s 3-0 straight-set loss to France (25-21, 25-21, 25-22) with a 3-0 straight-set win (25-18, 25-18, 25-17) over the Netherlands. Captain Nemanja Petric was the best scorer of this one-sided game with 15 points to his name, including two aces and two stuffs.

In Pool A’s only game of the day, Germany gave the host’s fans more reason to cheer by gaining their second clean-slate victory, thanks to a hard-fought 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 26-24) shutout of Belgium.

The Germans had got their campaign off to a good start the day before with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-20) over the Czech Republic. Sunday’s other match saw Slovenia overcome Belgium also in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 28-26, 25-20).

The Women’s Continental Tokyo Olympic Volleyball Qualification process is also underway and will be held across the five Continental Confederations over the coming week. The tournaments will take place in Yaounde, Cameroon (African Confederation, 5-9 January), Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand (Asian Confederation, 7-12 January), Apeldoorn, Netherlands (European Confederation, 7-12 January), Bogota, Colombia (South American Confederation, 7-9 January) and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation, 10-12 January).

Sunday’s opening round of games in Yaounde saw Kenya beat Egypt 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-22) whilst hosts Cameroon beat Botswana 3-0 (25-17, 25-4, 27-25). Both Kenya and Cameroon maintained their unbeaten starts on Monday, Kenya shutting out Botswana 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) with Cameroon equally as impressive in their 3-0 success over Nigeria (25-12, 25-10, 25-8).

It means both nations are set to meet on Tuesday to decide who will earn the single African qualifier ticket to the women’s volleyball tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.