The men heading for Hamburg

World number ones Anders Mol and Christian Sørum lead the field of men’s teams who have secured their spot at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Hamburg 2019 presented by comdirect and ALDI Nord.

The FIVB, in conjunction with the five continental confederations, have revealed the list of 45 teams who have qualified for a place at the Rothenbaum. Three remaining spots for wildcards remain – the names of which will be published before the confirmed entry list on May 27.

The Norwegians youngsters will be making their championship debut in Hamburg, but which other teams will join them when the tournament kicks off on June 28?

Reigning champs make it

There are seven former World Champions in the men’s list, with both reigning champs, Evandro Gonçalves and Andre Loyola confirmed – although now with different partners following their win in Vienna two years ago.

Brazilian teams have struggled form in the wake of the break-up between Olympic champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt two seasons ago. However, four teams from the South American powerhouse are in the draw: Pedro/Vitor Felipe, Evandro/Bruno, Andre/George and Alison/Alvaro.

European dominance

A total of 15 men’s teams from Europe qualified outright, including Mol/Sørum. 2013 champions Brouwer/Meeuwsen of the Netherlands, 2017 runners-up from Austria Doppler/Horst and in-form Russian pair Stoyanovskiy/Krasilnikov are among those European teams confirmed. Also fixed in the competition are last year’s Majors ‘nearly men’ Fijalek/Bryl, who were runners-up at boh the Vienna Major and the Hamburg World Tour Finals.

A further four European teams have secured a place through the CEV qualification pathway: Liamin/Myskiv (Russia), Perusic/Schweiner (Czech Republic), Seidl/Waller (Austria) and Hudyakov/Velichko (Russia).

Four-Star USA

Will Star Spangled Banner be sung come the day of the final? Well the United States have four men’s teams confirmed, including one former World Champion in the shape of Phil Dalhausser with teammate Nick Lucena.

Also lining-up for the USA are Gibb/Taylor Crabb, Trevor Crabb/Bourne and Allen/Slick, coming through the North American qualification system.

Hamburg calling, what about the Germans?

As it stands, the hosts have two teams fixed in the tournament, from a maximum of six, before any wildcards have been named.

Those two are World Tour regulars, Clemens Wickler and Julius Thole, who will be making the championship debuts, as well as fellow debutant Nils Ehlers and Lars Flüggen, who played in Vienna two years ago.

Rest of the World

Among the teams to have their names in the hat for the draw on June 4 are Mexicans Virgin/Ontiveros, who are set for World Championship number four together, Japanese pair Gottsu/Ageba – who will make their debuts – and Moroccans Abicha/Elgraoui who competed in Vienna in 2017.

Rwanda’s Kavalo/Ntagengwa and Soares/Nuvunga of Mozambique are also set for their debuts on the world stage, too, having qualified via the African pathway.

With Brazil taking four spots through the FIVB ranking route, Uruguay were able to seal a spot for Vieyto/Carius, who competed in Vienna two years ago. The pair are joined by World Tour regulars Azaad/Capogrosso of Argentina and teams from Chile and Venezula.

All eyes will be on which teams receive a wildcard – with Germany set to receive at least one – with the confirmed entry list due for publication on May 27 ahead of the Drawing of Lots on June 4.

Watch this space!

Full list of qualifiers:

 Men - FIVB World Tour Entry List (listed in alphabetical order of nation)

1.            Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria

2.            Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle, Belgium

3.            Alison Cerutti/Alvaro Filho, Brazil

4.            Vitor Felipe/Pedro Solberg, Brazil

5.            Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, Brazil

6.            Evandro Goncalves/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil

7.            Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter, Canada

8.            Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile

9.            Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler, Germany

10.          Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy

11.          Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs, Latvia

12.          Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Latvia

13.          Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands

14.          Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, Norway

15.          Michal Bryl/Grzegorz Fijalek, Poland

16.          Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Poland

17.          Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan, Qatar

18.          Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Oleg Stoyanovskiy, Russia

19.          Ilya Leshukov/Konstantin Semenov, Russia

20.          Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson, Switzerland

21.          Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain

22.          Taylor Crabb/Jake Gibb, United States

23.          Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, United States

24.          Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb, United States

Host Country

25.          Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen, Germany

AVC Qualification Pathway

26.          Cole Durant/Damien Schumann, Australia

27.          Yusuke "Gottsu" Ishijima/Takumi Takahashi, Japan

28.          Bahman Salemiinjehbroun/Arash Vakili, Iran

29.          Tamer Abdelrasoul/Mahmoud Assam, Qatar

CAVB Qualification Pathway

30.          Abicha Mohamed/Elgraoui Zouheir, Morocco

31.          Olivier Ntagengwa/Patrick Kavalo, Rwanda

32.          Delcio Soares/Aldexino Ninuja, Mozambique

33.          Ishmail Bangura/Ibrahim Jon Kamara, Sierra Leone

CEV Qualification Pathway

34.          Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller, Austria

35.          Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner, Czech Republic

36.          Maksim Hudyakov/Igor Velichko, Russia

37.          Nikita Liamin/Taras Myskiv, Russia

CSV Qualification Pathway

38.          Julian Azaad/Nicolas Capogrosso, Argentina

39.          Gaspar Lammel.Ignacio Zavala, Chile

40.          Marco Cairus/Mauricio  Vieyto, Uruguay

41.          Tigrito Gomez/Carlos Rangel, Venezuela

NORCECA Qualification Pathway

42.          Grant O'Gorman/Ben Saxton, Canada

43.          Sergio Gonzalez Bayard/Luis Reyes Rodriguez, Cuba

44.          Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen, Mexico

45.          Billy Allen/Stafford Slick, United States

Wildcards

46.          Philippe-Arne Bergmann/Yannick Harms, Germany

47.          Sven Winter/Alex Walknehorst, Germany

48.          Alex Ranghieri/Marco Caminati, Italy