Australian Tokyo Olympic team: Men’s beach volleyball fill final quota spot

For the first time since Beijing in 2008, Australia will have a men’s beach volleyball team at the Olympics.

With just 25 days to go, Australia secured the final quota spot of the men’s beach volleyball at the Tokyo Olympics.

The teams of Chris McHugh/Damien Schumann and Max Guehrer/Zach Schubert both won their respective matches against Indonesia on Sunday at the final day of the AVC Continental Cup in Thailand.

The wins means that for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Australia will have a men’s beach volleyball team compete.

Australia's men's volleyball representatives after securing a spot at the Tokyo Olympcs: (l-r) Damien Schumann, Chris McHugh, Max Guehrer, Zach Schubert, Tom Hodges, Paul Burnett.

All players on Monday left Thailand for Brisbane where they will quarantine for two weeks and then have five days of training before departing for Japan.

But final team selection will be decided this week with the one men’s team to join medal hopes Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar.

Form suggests McHugh and Schumann, who won beach volleyball’s first ever gold medal in the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, have the front running after an impressive season at home.

McHugh said: “It’s so amazing... it feels a little surreal. It’s been a long time since Australia had a men’s team compete at the Olympics ... and I couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”

“It has been a tough two weeks in Thailand, essentially playing while in a quarantine bubble. We’ve either been in quarantine or outside playing volleyball for an hour and a half, no gym, no stretching outside.

Damien Schumann and Chris McHugh are favoured to earn selection for the Tokyo Games. Picture Emma Brasier

“But that’s what we had to do in this Covid world ... we have had tight and secure conditions here but it made competition possible and we are really grateful.

“For us (Australia) we had six guys here, Damo and me, Zach and Max as well as Paul (Burnett) and Tom (Hodges) who were our reserves. We were all pushing each other in our training environments to get here and supporting each other along the way.

“We all came here to get the men’s team to the Olympics and we’ve done that now!”

McHugh, with four knee surgeries over an 18 month period, is one of the athletes to benefit from the delayed Games.

“We’re a pretty tight group, we all train and live together (at beach volleyball;’s high performance centre in South Australia) and there’s a tight bond - I see these guys more than my wife - so we put the ambitions of the sport ahead of ourselves.

“And now we just have to wait and see what happens.”

Australian Olympic hopeful Chris McHugh celebrates a point during the AVC Continental Cup in Thailand

The interrupted international pause on competition saw McHugh and Schumann spend time truck driving and school teaching before the pair won Australian Beach Volleyball Championships in Manly earlier this year.

And in doing so sent a message not to just their international opponents but to Australia’s professional sporting stars.

Schumann said: “There’s nothing we wouldn’t do to be at the Tokyo Olympics ...what’s two weeks in quarantine to make sure everyone is safe and the Games can go on.”

As part of the Olympic playbook released this year, which included advice from the World Health Organisation, singing and chanting will be banned at Tokyo.

Athletes will be expected to take a coronavirus test 72 hours before their departure for Tokyo and show a negative result on arrival.