Direct entry to August's Olympic Games is back on for Tauranga's Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman after a good start to the world tour, although their most likely route to London remains via June's Continental Cup final in China.
The New Zealand No 1 pairing have finished ninth at the US$190,000 Brasilia Open, the first tournament of the world tour, which has lifted their Olympic ranking less than two months before the mid-June cut-off for automatic qualification.
The top 16 teams in the world after the US$300,000 Rome Grand Slam from June 12-17 qualify automatically for London, although with each country allowed only two teams at the Olympics, Pitman and Lochhead's 1784 ranking points put them closer to qualification than ever before, with the 16th-ranked team, Latvia's Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins, on 2480 points.
The four-strong New Zealand team - Pitman/Lochhead and Tauranga siblings Sam and Ben O'Dea - finished second to Australia at their Asia-Pacific Olympic qualifier at Mt Maunganui in February but still qualified for June's Asian Confederation Continental Cup in China, where the winning nation will grab one of the last spots for the London Olympics.
Mike Dudson, Volleyball NZ's high performance elite beach manager, said yesterday the strong finish in Brazil had reignited Pitman and Lochhead's late push for the top 16.
"We've done the maths and a run of ninth placings will put Jase and Kirk back in contention. The likelihood's not great but it's not impossible - they'd have to play great weeks on end," Dudson said. "While I hope it happens I wouldn't put my last dollar on it."
The pair have six tournaments left in the Olympic qualifying period - the US$190,000 Poland and Prague Opens and US$300,000 Grand Slam events in Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow and Rome.
They spent six weeks training in California with coach Jeff Conover before Brazil and, despite losing their first round match to Germany 2-0, went on to defeat Great Britain 2-1, Holland 2-1 and Norway 2-1 before losing to Brazilians Moises Santos and Vitor Felipe 23-21 21-12 to finish ninth.
"Jason had some pretty nasty stomach cramps in the last match," Dudson said. "They actually led 19-16 in that first set and lost it, before blowing out in the second. It was a great start though and the pleasing thing was how well they played to battle through to the top part of the draw."
The O'Deas have also been busy on the secondary Asian tour, winning the Thailand championship and backing it up with gold, bronze and fifth in the last month.
The Continental Cup final is played on a Davis Cup-style format, with all four players' results counting.
And Dudson hoped the No 2 ranked Kiwis could hold their form through to China, hinting that the brothers would play together rather than being partnered with Pitman and Lochhead, a move that backfired at Mt Maunganui as Australia won the gold medal match 4-0, dropping just two sets.
"Having Ben and Sam contribute with some wins in China will be important. They beat Iran, the reigning beach champions, at their last tournament, which was a fantastic result."
The O'Deas should have enough ranking points to make pre-qualifying for the Grand Slams in Shanghai and Beijing in May and would also travel to Rome in the hope of making qualifying there.