New Zealand won't have a beach volleyball team at the Olympics after the elimination of the men's team in China, sports editor Kelly Exelby reports.
The Olympic dream of Tauranga's Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman is over after the New Zealand team's shock first round exit from the Continental Cup Asia zone final in China.
New Zealand were bundled out in their opening tie against Kazakhstan, losing 3-1 with Tauranga siblings Sam and Ben O'Dea getting the Kiwis' sole win in the coastal city of Fuzhou.
With 16 nations in the Asian zone chasing a solitary spot in London, New Zealand was expected to feature in the last-chance qualifier, with Pitman and Lochhead regulars on the world tour for eight seasons and taking an Olympic qualification ranking of 20 into the tournament.
New Zealand finished second to Australia at their Asia-Pacific Olympic qualifier at Mount Maunganui in February but still qualified for the Asia Confederation Continental Cup.
Even a second or third in China would have been enough, with the next two teams going to Sardinia with the second and third placegetters from the four other Continental Cups to play for the last two places.
The cut-throat single elimination format meant one slip-up was a killer and the tie got off to the worst possible start when Pitman and Lochhead lost their opening match 2-1 to Dmitriy Yakovlev and Alexey Kuleshov. The O'Deas grabbed a lifeline when they downed the world No 22 combination Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexey Sidorenko 21-15, 21-17, but Kazakhstan wrested back the initiative with a 21-19 19-21 15-13 victory over the top-ranked Kiwis.
That left the Tauranga brothers needing to win to send the tie into a sudden-death golden set. They fought hard but went down in an hour-long marathon to Yakovlev and Kuleshov 23-25 21-17 16-14.
The New Zealand women weren't expected to feature and didn't, losing 3-0 to Vietnam.
Mike Dudson, New Zealand's high performance manager for men's beach volleyball, spoke with the Kiwis soon after the loss and said they were devastated - predictably.
"Gutted is about the only word really. It was one of those days. You draw a good team who win some good points down the stretch, and the fact three of the games featured tie-breaker sets, all of which went to 15-13 or 16-14, just shows there was absolutely nothing in it."
The cruel irony about having to fight their way through regional qualifying is that only the top 16 teams in the world qualified automatically for London instead of the top 24, which it had been since beach volleyball's introduction in Atlanta in 1996.
Pitman and Lochhead were 20th - good enough four years ago but not this time.
"Any other Olympic period and they would have got through automatically," Dudson said. "We were gutted, frankly, when this new formula was introduced because having just missed out on Beijing by one spot [they were ranked 25th] we knew that in another four years on tour they'd be in the top 20."
Once New Zealand finished second to Australia in February they knew they'd missed out on one of the coveted 1-5 seeding spots in China and the opportunity to play one of the minnows. They got Kazakhstan in a random draw but still went in as the highest-ranked world tour team.
"We still had to win every match to qualify so weren't concerned at all at drawing Kazakhstan," Dudson said. "It made it more difficult than it otherwise could have been, and I'm sure both teams would have liked a chance to get their feet wet against a Samoa or Sri Lanka, but it wasn't the cause.
"One of the big disappointments is that by losing we also missed the chance to finish two or three and go to Sardinia to that second-chance tournament."
Dudson said Pitman and Lochhead would dust themselves off and finish the last four tournaments on the world tour starting in Switzerland next week, although he didn't want to speculate on the pair's future together beyond this year.
"It's too early right now to say if they'll carry on and probably not the time to be making decisions like that, although they're young enough.
"The big question is is there the funding for them to do that? Being on tour full time is an expensive proposition ... High Performance NZ and Volleyball NZ have helped out but it costs Jason and Kirk a significant amount of money every year."
Continental Cup Asia zone men's first round:
New Zealand 1 Kazakhstan 3: Kirk Pitman-Jason Lochhead (NZ) lost to Dmitriy Yakovlev-Alexey Kuleshov (KAZ) 1-2 (19-21, 21-17, 13-15), Ben O'Dea-Sam (NZ) bt Alexandr Dyachenko-Alexey Sidorenko (KAZ) 2-0 (21-15, 21-17), Pitman-Lochhead (NZ) lost to Dyachenko-Sidorenko (KAZ) 1-2 (19-21, 21-18, 13-15), Ben O'Dea-Sam O'Dea (NZ) lost to Yakovlev-Kuleshov (KAZ) 1-2 (25-23, 17-21, 14-16).
Oman 3 Sri Lanka 0, Indonesia 3 Samoa 0, Iran 3 Vietnam 0, Japan 3 Qatar 0, Thailand 3 Brunei 0.
Women:
Vietnam 3 New Zealand 0: Hong Phan Thi Cam-Thi Tiep Nguyen (Viet) bt Micah Brown-Julia Brown (NZ) 2-0 (21-16, 21-16), Thi Thu Ha Phan-Do Hong Loan Huynh (Viet) bt Alice Bain-Melissa Ruru (NZ) 2-0 (21-14, 21-14), Phan Thi Cam-Tiep Nguyen (Viet) bt Bain-Ruru 2-0 (21-18, 21-14), Phan-Huynh v Brown-Tilley not played.
Vanuatu 3 Hong Kong 0, Indonesia 2 Kazakhstan 3, Japan 3 India 0, Taipei 3 Sri Lanka 0.