News The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has completed the draw for the highly anticipated beach volleyball competition at Rio 2016, which will take place on world-famous Copacabana beach in less than one month's time At a ceremony in Switzerland on Saturday (9 July), 44 of the 48 men’s and women’s teams learned who their pool play opponents will be in the first phase of the Olympic competition With 22 of the 24 berths in each gender’s competition already filled for the Olympic tournament, which will take place from 6 to 18 August, the final two men’s and women’s berths will be determined on Sunday in the FIVB Continental Cup Finals in Russia To start the draw, the top six-seeded teams were confirmed and placed on top of the six pools in each gender’s competition Pool A in the men’s and women’s competitions were filled by the top-seeded Brazilian pairs of Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca respectively The top-seeded Brazilian pairing of Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca won the Gstaad Major on Saturday (Photo: Getty Images/Mike Ehrmann)  Other top pool pairs for men are Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands (pool B), Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of the USA (pool C), Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg of Brazil (pool D), Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst of the Netherlands (pool E) and Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson of the USA (pool F) After the pool matches, the winners and runners-up of each pool will progress automatically to the knock-out stage The two best third-placed teams will also go through The last two places in the round of 16 will be decided by matches between the other third-placed teams Men's draw Pool A - Alison/Bruno, Brazil; Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Italy; Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria; a team that qualifies on Sunday (Canada or Venezuela) Pool B - Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands; Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Poland; Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen, Germany; a team that qualifies on Sunday (Belgium or Russia) Pool C - Dalhausser/Lucena, USA; Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy; Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen, Mexico; Choaib Belhaj/Mohamed Naceur, Tunisia Pool D - Evandro/Pedro, Brazil; Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Latvia; Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk, Canada; Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez, Cuba Pool E - Nummerdor/Varenhorst, Netherlands; Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov, Russia; Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland; Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile Pool F - Gibb/Patterson, USA; Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain; Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl, Austria; Jefferson Pereira/Cherif Younousse, Qatar Women's draw Joining Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca as the top women’s seeds are Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas of Brazil (pool B), April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings of the USA (pool C), Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst of Germany (pool D), Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan of Canada (pool E) and Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel of the Netherlands, (pool F) Pool A - Talita/Larissa/Franca, Brazil; Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska, Poland; Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, USA; a team that qualifies on Sunday (Austria or Russia) Pool B - Agatha/Barbara, Brazil; Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, Spain; Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug, Argentina; China, a team that qualifies on Sunday (China or Czech Republic) Pool C - Ross/Walsh Jennings, USA; Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre, Switzerland; Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China; Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia Pool D - Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany; Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth, Italy; Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas, Canada; Doaa Elghobashy/Nada Meawad, Egypt Pool E - Bansley/Pavan, Canada; Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Germany; Joana Heidrich/Nadine Zumkehr, Switzerland; Jantine van der Vlist/Sophie van Gestel, Netherlands Pool F - Meppelink/Van Iersel, Netherlands; Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy, Australia; Karen Cope Charles/Nathalia Alfaro, Costa Rica; Norisbeth Agudo/Olaya Pazo, Venezuela