Skip to content

Canada meets Italy in Lucky Loser match at Olympics

Reader and Binstock need to win this afternoon to advance to round of 16

 

 

 

A berth in the final 16 is at stake when Canada takes on Italy in a Lucky Losers men's beach volleyball match at the 2012 London Olympics.

The match goes at 3 p.m. PDT Thursday, with information about TV and Internet coverage not available at press time.

Canada, with Martin Reader of Comox and Josh Binstock of Toronto, finished third in Pool F with a 1-2 record while Italy, with Paolo Niccolai and Daniele Lupo, finished third in Pool A with a 1-2 record.

The 19th seeded Canadians were 2-4 in sets won-lost and 114-119 in points won-lost for a ratio of 0.958. The 13th seeded Italians were 2-4 in sets won-lost and 119-126 in points won-lost for a ratio of 0.944.

Germany is taking on the Czech Republic in the other Lucky Losers tilt Thursday.

The men's beach volleyball competition sees 24 teams in six pools of four in the preliminary phase; each team plays every other team in their pool.

A total of 16 teams from this phase qualify for the knockout phase – the top two teams from each pool and the best two third-ranked teams advance automatically. The four remaining third-ranked teams play a two-match Lucky Loser round; the two winning teams in the Lucky Loser round also qualify for the elimination phase. The winners of the semifinals eventually go head-to-head for the gold.

All matches are the best of three sets, with 21 points needed to win a set (15 in the third and deciding set).

sp