The bronze medalists of the 2024 Rio Elite16, the current world’s number 10 Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia, will headline Pool D. The other two teams in the pool, who will start with a match against each other, are Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher and the Brazilian pairing of 2017 world champion Andre Stein and 2022 World Championship silver medalist Renato Lima.
Pool E is one of the two awaiting two qualifying teams to join the line-up. It will be led by the Dutch pairing of 2013 world champion Alexander Brouwer with Steven van de Velde, who finished fourth last week in Joao Pessoa. Americans Chaim Schalk & James Shaw are the other known duo in the pool.
Last week’s Joao Pessoa winners have already piled up a solid success record in the home Brazilian sand. The Brazilian tandem of 2017 world champion Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Mariano Lanci, currently number six in the World Ranking, have collected four Beach Pro Tour gold medals so far, earning all of them in their home country, and will try to get more as they lead Pool E in Rio as the sixth seed in the main draw. The pool will also be graced by Cuban Olympians Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo.
Last year’s Rio de Janeiro Elite16 winners Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello of England are also back for more, but they will start their campaign from Wednesday’s qualifications. So they did in 2024, when they entered as the 14th-seeded team in the qualification bracket, but went on to claim their first and only Beach Pro Tour gold so far.
The men’s qualifiers, set to get underway at 08:00 local time (11:00 UTC) on Wednesday, will feature more high-caliber teams like last week’s Joao Pessoa silver medalists Remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye of France, now a joint number 11 in the World Ranking, or Norway’s Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol, also ranked 11th in the world. The world’s numbers 20 and 22 – Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger and Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos, respectively – who made brilliant runs from the qualifiers all the way to the quarterfinals in Joao Pessoa a few days ago, are also back among the candidates for main draw spots this week in Rio.
Once the main draw serves off on Wednesday afternoon, modified pool play format will determine the three teams per pool that will advance to the elimination rounds, which will eventually lead to Sunday’s medal matches in Rio de Janeiro.