Beach Volleyball FIVB Pro Tour 2023 (Haikou Challenge)

Another Moioli’s miracle  

Vitozzi is like a new person today.

Ya Beauty!

Yes, while Lamarche shows high consistency, a performance gap appears to exist between the top five skaters and the rest of the field. Lamarche finished 9th in the overall World Cup standings with an average placement of 11th, notably without any top 7 finishes during the season.   Several factors contribute to my prediction for her:   She finished only one point ahead of Silaeva and two points ahead of Wójcik, both of whom trended upward in the final World Cup weekend. Leerdam competed in six of the nine races, outperforming Lamarche in every instance where they both competed. Takagi almost never competes in the World Cup circuit, but delivers during big championships (e.g., her silver in Beijing 2022 out of nowhere). Kim Min-Sun is an experienced skater with many wins on the 500m. We can see that other experienced athletes such as Lollobrigida, Bergsma, Maltais, and Dubreuil have all exceeded expectations in the past week. Lee Na-Hyun and Boersma held higher average placements (4/7 in the top 6 and 3/7 in the top 7, respectively) but skipped the final two World Cup races, impacting their final standing relative to Lamarche.   I think today's field can be categorized into three distinct levels based on this season's results: Leader: Femke Kok is in a league of her own Podium Contenders: A group of four (Ziomek-Nogal, Jackson, Yoshida, and Leerdam) will most likely compete for the remaining podium spots. The Mid-Field: The skaters ranked between 6th (Warmuth) and 19th (Hiller-Donnelly) consistently finish behind the top five but could finish in any order, as they have constantly traded positions throughout the season. Any of them could finish on the podium on an exceptional day and when the podium contenders fail.

Vittozzi clean!   Jeanmonnot and Kirkeeide both with a miss!