European Continental Cup success for Austrian men

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Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl booked Austria’s second ticket to Rio in Stavanger. Photocredit: CEV.

Olympic hopes and dreams were realized in Stavanger on Sunday as Austria celebrated a place in Rio with victory over Belgium in Europe’s Continental Cup.

Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl won two matches to ensure that Austria will be represented with two men’s teams on the Copacabana.

Alexander Horst and Clemens Doppler had already booked their ticket to Brazil following their qualification through the World Tour.

In Sunday’s finale, the Belgians took the first match as Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle beat Kunert and Dressler.

However, Huber/Seidl downed Bob Douwen and Robin Adriaensen to set-up a winner-takes-all golden match.

And that was where the Austrians flexed their muscles, as Huber/Seidl put Koekelkoren/van Walle to the sword to book their nation’s second spot at the Olympics.

Who will the Austrian Volleyball Federation send to Rio with Dopper/Horst? Keep your eyes peeled on swatchmajorseries.com for the latest news.

In Saturday’s women’s competition there was also joy for Austria as their fourth place was enough to sneak a place in the final Continental Cup tournament in Sochi next week.

It was the Netherlands that landed first place and an Olympic place with a victory over Ukraine. Sophie van Gestel and Jantine van der Vlist did the damage, triumphing twice to guarantee the Dutch a second – and fourth overall – place at this summer’s showpiece.

Ukraine, Austria and Russian teams will all now head to Sochi next week.

We’ll have a worldwide round-up of all of the Continental Cup fixtures from across the globe later this week!

Congratulations to all the winners – see you in Brazil!