DOOR OPENS FOR AUSSIES TO SHINE
FOR more than two decades no one loomed larger than “Six Feet of Sunshine Kerri Walsh Jennings”, but with the US great not at these Games the women’s beach volleyball is wide open – and Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar know it.
Everyone thought Jennings, beach volleyball’s most decorated Olympian with three gold and a bronze, was going to be here in Tokyo.
Until she wasn’t ... the first Olympics in the 21st century the Californian has missed.
And so opens the door for Clancy and del Solar to become Australia’s most successful pairing since Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst.
“There’s no such thing as an easy draw,” Artacho del Solar said. “It’s a packed Olympic competition, they are the best of the best and everyone is here to do the job and win.
“But she (Jennings) is an amazing athlete ... it is like a new chapter for our sport.”
Clancy added: “The Olympic qualifying has been very close with lots of teams winning events and some good depth right through the women’s draw.”
Amid a backdrop of a 1960s-style game show held in Russia, the Aussies were named in Pool E.
It’s a good result for the Aussies, missing Pool B which is chockers with Olympic experience, and Pool D, boasting in-form American pair Kelly
Claes and Sarah Sponcil.
For each gender there are six pools with four teams apiece. To advance to the singleelimination stage in the second week of the Olympics (the first week is strictly pool play with each team playing three matches) a team essentially has to finish in the top three of their pool, although half of the thirdplace teams will have to play an extra match in a “lucky losers” format.