Brazilian men favourites in beach volleyball competition

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 4, 2016 – Despite playing a limited schedule on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar, the Brazilian pairs over Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg are the overwhelming favorites to be two of the three men’s teams to reach the Beach Volleyball podium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

With their Rio 2016 Summer Games berth secured since September 2015 when the Brazilian Volleyball federation announced the two teams as its entries for the Copacabana quadrennial, Alison/Bruno and Evandro/Pedro have played in a combined 15 events since October 2015 where a total of 20 men’s event have been staged on the international circuit.

Of the combined 15 starts, the Brazilian men’s Olympic entries have won only three gold medals with seven podium placements and eight “final four” finishes.  Two of the three FIVB tournament titles came in the last two appearances by the Brazilian pairs on the world tour.  Alison and Bruno topped the podium at the Porec Major in Croatia (July 3) and Evandro and Pedro captured gold at the Gstaad Major in Switzerland (July 10).

“Our limited schedule has been by designed,” said the 29-year old Bruno, who is playing in his first Olympic Games as are Evandro and Pedro.  Alison will be competing in the Summer Games for the second time after claiming the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics with the legendary Emanuel Rego as the pair dropped the finale to Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany in three sets.

“Alison and I worked hard last season to secure our Rio berth as we had to compete against other Brazilian pairs that had the same goals as us in playing in the Olympics in our home country,” said Bruno.  “We know that we are one of the favorites to win a medal and we welcome that role.  Alison and I will be ready, but so will the other 23 men’s teams.  It is a deep and competitive field.  Our goal is to stay focused and take it one match at a time.  Every team will said the same thing.  We cannot look ahead to the next match.  We just need to play hard and worry about the opponent we are playing.”

Alison and Bruno, the 2015 FIVB world champions and top qualifier from the FIVB World Tour, will be playing in Pool A along with pairs from Austria, Canada and Italy.  Evandro and Pedro, the host country entrant and No. 4 finisher on the international circuit’s Olympic qualifying list, will be competing in the “toughest” group with teams from Canada, Cuba and Latvia in Pool D.

The top two pairs from each pool will advance to the 16-team elimination bracket along with the best two third-place finishers from the groups.  The last four third-place finishers will playoff for the last two spots in the elimination bracket.  Here is a look at each pool.

Pool A – Alison and Bruno are heavy favorites to win pool that includes Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria, Adrian Carambula/Alex …

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