LA28 berths up for grabs in Alexandrian sand
Africa’s road to Los Angeles began in Abu Haif Beach, Egypt this week at the 2026 CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Senior Championships, where the women’s and men’s gold medalists will secure Olympic spots.
Each field consists of 24 teams from across the continent, including Morocco, Algeria and Nigeria.
In each gender, they are split into six single round-robin pools of four or three teams each.
The pool winners, the pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed duos will advance to the eighth finals, while the remaining four third-placed teams will go through a sixteenth final round to fill up the two remaining vacancies among the last 16.
Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow to determine the final tournament standings.
The tournament began Tuesday, with some match winners already emerging, including Cameroon, Morocco, Mozambique and Seychelles in the women’s.
In the men’s, Kenya, Mozambique and Egypt have made headway.
The championships are set to close on Sunday.
Egypt’s Marwa Abdelhady & Doaa Elghobashy represented the nation at Paris 2024 and are the top-seeded team in the women’s competition.
Reigning 2025 African champion Dina Mellal of Morocco and her current partner Imane Yakki, who took continental silver in 2022, are seeded second.
Last year’s silver medalist, Vanessa Muianga of Mozambique, now plays alongside Ana Sinaportar. Vanessa & Sinaportar took African Championship bronze together in 2022.
The continental champion of that year, Nora Darrhar, and Alexandra Erhart form another Moroccan duo to compete in Alexandria this week.
The men’s field features a Moroccan pairing of 2025 African champion Soufiane El Gharouti and the continental champion of the previous three editions, Zouheir Elgraoui, who is also a 2025 silver medalist and a two-time Olympian. The duo is seeded second in the men’s main draw bracket in Alexandria.
The highest-placed African team in the men’s FIVB World Ranking, Jose Alberto Mondlane & Osvaldo Mungoi of Mozambique, who are also bronze medalists of the last two editions of the continental championship, are seeded third.
Bracket leaders Moaz Abdelkarim & Youssef Abdelrahman represent the host nation, Egypt.-Insidethegames
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