The last tournament before their fourth Olympic appearance as partners, the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Vienna Elite16 started well for Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira as the Spanish veterans were among the four men’s teams to overcome the qualifier in the Austrian capital on Wednesday.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Vienna Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Herrera, who’s set to compete in the Games for a record sixth time, and Gavira, who will make his fourth appearance in a few weeks, had to win an ‘Olympic preview’ in Vienna as they were faced with French Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, who will be their pool opponents in Paris, in the second round of the qualifier and triumphed in straight sets (23-21, 21-17).

The Spanish were placed in Pool B in the Vienna Elite 16 and will play Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan and Chile’s Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt in the first phase of the tournament.

Australians Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis, who are also qualified for Paris 2024, overcame the Vienna qualifier too, beating the English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin in the tie-breaker (21-19, 16-21, 15-10). In the main draw, they will have the Netherlands’ Matthew Immers/Steven van de Velde and Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot and Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst as their opponents in Pool D.

Olympic-bound Australia’s Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert and Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri also played in the Vienna Elite16 qualifier, but couldn’t advance. The Aussies fell to Brazilians Adrielson dos Santos and Arthur Mariano, who made it to the main draw. The fourth and final berth went to Australia’s Paul Burnett and Chris McHugh.

Vienna Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

On Thursday, the men will play their first two matches of pool play in Vienna

Olympic teams lead three women’s pools

Wednesday also had the start of the women’s main draw in Vienna, with each team playing twice and four duos that will compete in the Paris Olympics in a few weeks went undefeated in their first two duels in the Austrian capital.

In Pool A, Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova sit in first place, after a two-set (21-14, 21-11) victory over Ukrainians Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko and a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-13) triumph over Australians Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho.

Swiss Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré came back twice to survive a pair of tie-breakers in Pool B to defeat Spanish Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno (17-21, 21-18, 15-11) and USA’s Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint (26-28, 21-18, 15-13).

Pool C has two undefeated teams - Germany's Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann, who topped Brazil's Thamela Coradello/Victoria Lopes 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) and compatriots Margareta Kozuch and Sarah Schneider also in two sets (21-19, 21-18), and Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi, who overcame the Germans in straight sets (21-15, 21-19) and the Brazilians in three (21-13, 19-21, 15-10). The two teams will meet on Thursday for the first place in the pool.

Pool D has a team not qualified for Paris 2024 at the top. Swiss Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré, who took bronze at Tokyo 2020, are in control following victories over Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti (15-21, 24-22, 15-13) and the Austrian Klinger sisters Dorina and Ronja (21-14, 21-15).

The Vienna Elite16 continues on Thursday for the women with the conclusion of pool play.

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