Australia’s beach volleyballers have advanced to the finals of both the men’s and women’s Continental Cup Finals at Min River Park in Fuzhou – a win in the finals securing Australia a place at the London Olympic Games.

With world ranked women's pairing Becchara Palmer and Louise Bawden already gaining automatic qualification with their top 16 finish in the Olympic Qualification period, Olympic places await Australia’s next highest ranked teams - Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchley in the women’s event and Josh Slack and Chris McHugh in the men.

The country v country format in the Continental Cup Finals sees two teams from each federation in each category play off for the final positions in the 24 team Olympic competition and if Australia can win in Fuzhou they will qualify their nominated teams for London.

There is one final chance for federations to qualify the final two places in next week’s final Qualifying tournament in Moscow (see Qualification process).

In the women’s tournament Australia will play China in the final with Sydney Olympics gold medallist Cook and her Beijing partner Hinchley leading the Australian charge. Cook chasing a record fifth Games berth and Hinchley a third.

They are being supported well by young pair Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy.

Australia beat Thailand 3-1 in the semi-finals while China was formidable against Kazakhstan.

In the men Australia disposed ofIndonesia in one semi-final while Japan defeated China in the other.

The Australians top seeds who will book their seat to London if they can defeat Japan are Chris McHugh and three-time Olympian Josh Slack.
The other Australian duo of Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa are also in great form and causing their opposition a lot of trouble at the net.

Volleyball Australia