53 FORMER ANOC WORLD BEACH GAMES ATHLETES (QATAR 2019) TO PARTICIPATE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES TOKYO 2020
Once the Olympic cauldron is lit at the New National Stadium in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, the Olympic Dream of 53 Qatar 2019 ANOC World Beach Games participants will come true. For some of these athletes, it will be their first appearance at the Olympic stage, and the ANOC World Beach Games have certainly helped them prepare for the multisport game world. When are the former Beach Games athletes compete and what are their medal chances?
3×3 Basketball
The 3×3 Basketball discipline will make its first appearance at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. The format has proven to be very successful and was included in the Summer Youth Olympic Games and the ANOC World Beach Games.
The preliminary round of the Men’s and Women’s 3×3 Basketball events is staged as one pool group (one per gender) in which all eight teams will play against each other.
Tserenlkham MUNKHSAIKHAN from Mongolia will start competing with her team on Saturday 24 July against Italy and the United States. The Mongolian team, which qualified as 4th in the world ranking (as of 1.11.2019) will try to qualify for the quarterfinals, an objective the Mongolian team could not achieve at Qatar 2019.
Peng YAN from China will play his first match against ROC on the official first competition day of the Games. Although China’s Men’s team is not among the favourites for the medals, they have appointed a young squad to reach for glory.
Beach Volleyball
Since Beach Volleyball made its first appearance in Atlanta 1996, it came to stay. The Men’s and Women’s events, starting on the first official competition day of the Games, will crown the new Olympic champions after 14 and 15 competition days.
ANOC World Beach Games Gold medallist Taylor CRABB from the USA will dive into the sand for the first time against the Italian pair Carambula/Rossi on Sunday, 25 July. Taylor plays with his 45-year old partner Jake GIBB, who brings in the experience of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games.
The American pair will play in Pool C against the medal favourites Ahmed TIJAN and Cherif YOUNOUSSE. The Qatari pair, who won Silver in the Men’s Beach Volleyball 4×4 event in Doha, is currently ranked second in the world. This year they have been able to win one 4-star Beach Volleyball tournament and taking the silver medal home on four other occasions.
10km Open Water Swimming (Marathon Swimming)
Eleven athletes that participated at the ANOC World Beach Games in Qatar in 2019 will swim for Gold on 4 August (Women) and 5 August (Men). While in Doha, the swimmers went over a distance of 5km, the 10km open water distance will have its fourth appearance at the Olympics.
Odaiba Marine Park will see Samantha Michelle AREVALO SALINAS (ECU), Finnia WUNRAM (GER), Angelica ANDRE (POR), Paula RUIZ (ESP), Krystyna PANCHISHKO (UKR) and Paola Valentina PEREZ SIERRA (VEN), Qatar 2019 Bronze medallist Leonie BECK (GER) and ANOC World Beach Games champion Ana Marcela CUNHA (BRA) jump into Japanese waters in the Women’s event.
Matěj KOZUBEK (CZE), David Andres FARINANGO BERRU (ECU), Daniel DELGADILLO FAISAL (MEX) and Kristóf RASOVSZKY (HUN) will swim in the Men’s event, with the latter having the most chances of this group to fight for the medals, after his second place in the first leg of the FINA/CNSG Marathon Swim World Series this year.
Karate – Kata
Karate is one of the new sports that are included into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics program. Japan, the birth nation of this martial art, could not have missed the opportunity to stage one of its most popular sports. A total of 14 athletes that gathered multisport games experience at the ANOC World Beach Games in Qatar in 2019 will represent their countries in the Kata discipline.
Yi-Ta WANG (TPE), Ilja SMORGUNER (GER), Sayed Mohammed ALMOSAWI (KUW), Heejun PARK (KOR), Damian Hugo QUINTERO CAPDEVILA (ESP), Ali SOFUOGLU (TUR), Ariel TORRES GUTIERREZ (USA) and Antonio Jose DIAZ FERNANDEZ (VEN) will step onto the tatami on 6 August. Antonio Diaz is considered a legend within the sport and will retire after the Games. Ali Sofuoglu and ANOC World Beach Games Gold medallist Damian Quintero are the favourites to battle for the first-ever Olympic title.
The World Karate federation called Sandra Sánchez, who represents Spain, the ‘greatest of all time’. Along with the ANOC World Beach games title, she is the 2018 World Champion and won five-time European championships. Her contestants that also competed in Doha are Alexandra FERACCI (FRA), Jasmin JUETTNER (GER), Mo Sheung Grace LAU (HKG), Andrea ANACAN (NZL) and Sakura KOKUMAI (USA).
Skateboarding – Park
One of the most exciting sports in the program will be Skateboarding. 13 athletes that competed in the Skateboarding Park disciplines at the ANOC World Beach Games will make their Olympic debut on 4 and 5 August. Park skating has its roots firmly in the drained swimming pools that skaters first used in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles when skateboarding first emerged. The competitors are scored for the difficulty and the originality of their tricks.
Xin ZHANG (CHN), Madeleine LARCHERON (FRA), Qatar 2019 ANOC World Beach Games Bronze medallist Julia BENEDETTI GONZALEZ (ESP) and Gold medallist Sakura YOSOZUMI (JPN) will try to reach for the stars at the Ariake Sports Park.
The Men’s event will feature Andrew ANDERSON (CAN), Rune GLIFBERG (DEN), Vincent MATHERON (FRA), Tyler Kilian EDTMAYER (GER), Alessandro MAZZARA (ITA), Jaime MATEU SOLIVELLAS (ESP), Daniel LEON VALLARINO (ESP), AWBG Qatar 2019 Silver medallist Steven Yancy PINEIRO (PUR) and Gold medallist Heimana REYNOLDS (USA). The latter, who finished off 2020 as the top-ranked male park skater, is the absolute favourite for the Olympic title.
Sports Climbing
Sports Climbing is another discipline that will make its debut at the senior’s Summer Olympics. The sport will feature three different disciplines: Speed, Bouldering, and Lead for a single set of medals in a Combined competition. Each athlete will compete in all the disciplines, and the medallists will be the ones with the lowest score after the multiplication of the rankings in each climbing discipline.
Three male climbers that competed in Qatar 2019 will represent their NOCs starting from 3 August. Sean MCCOLL (CAN), Mickaël MAWEM (FRA), who also competes with his sibling Bassa and local hero and ANOC World Beach Games title holder Kai HARADA (JPN).
In the Women’s event starting on 4 August, Oceania MACKENZIE (AUS), Alannah YIP (CAN), AWBG title holder Miho NONAKA (JPN) and Silver medallist Petra KLINGLER (SUI) will climb for Olympic glory at the Aomi Urban Sports Park. Miho Nonaka will keep up the Japanese hopes and try to reach the podium at home.
Wrestling
Wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will feature 18 events in three different styles (Men’s Freestyle, Men’s Greco-Roman and Women’s Freestyle). Vasyl MYKHAILOV from Ukraine snatched the last Freestyle 74kg qualification spot at the Olympic Games World Qualification event, held in Sofia in May this year. The Bronze medallist at the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 in the Beach Wrestling 80kg category will start competing on 5 August.
The Makuhary Hall will have to wait until 6 August to see Miglena SELISHKA from Bulgaria compete in the Freestyle 50kg category. After winning Silver in Doha in the Beach Wrestling 50KG category, Miglena is determined to reach for the medals. A Gold medal in Rome in 2020 and a Silver medal in Warsow in 2021 at the European Championships vouch for her.
Source: Olympics.com
