Celebrating the chase to Copacabana for Austrians Doppler & Horst

Klagenfurt, Austria, July 26, 2016 – Two years of piling up Olympic points were over and Alexander Horst and Clemens Doppler could finally celebrate that the chase was over following the smart Major Hamburg in June.

Both players had qualified for their Olympiad, but it was no routine moment.

“Of course you say to yourself this doesn’t affect your game, but it was a little bit like you could sit down and breathe normally and not be nervous,” Doppler said. “It’s my fourth attempt now that I go for the Olympics and every four years something strange happens in a couple of tournaments.

“After Hamburg we just sat down and had a beer and said congratulations for the team even they we knew we were (already) more or less qualified. To see your name on the list, you’re proud.

For the Austrian duo, the cold-shower moment came when the Olympic pools were drawn. They had to join No. 1-ranked Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil, Canadian veterans Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter and Italians Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri in Pool A, which might be the toughest of the six Olympic groupings.

But they also received a bonus: Their match against Carambula and Ranghieri will kick off the entire Rio 2016 Olympic Beach Volleyball tournament, so one of the four players will have the first serve of the Olympiad.

“Now it’s interesting we have the opening …

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