The last major international event of the beach volleyball season – aside from the Olympic Games, of course – is finished. It was not the best of tournaments for the Americans, nor the Chasing Gold athletes: 17th for Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, ninth for Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, country quota loss for Delaney Mewhirter and Brooke Sweat, 17th for Emily Stockman and Kelley Kolinske, qualifier losses for Bill Kolinske and Miles Evans and Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger.
But, as Mewhirter likes to say, “onward and upward.”
One tournament ends.
Two more begin.
This week, Chasing Gold athletes are spread across the globe, competing in Rwanda and Belgium.
Finally, after months and months of training but not competing, Traci Callahan is getting her first crack at a main draw, playing the Rwanda two-star with Stockman, with new coach Scott Davenport on the road as well. Rwanda marks just the second FIVB event of Callahan’s career, the first time she’s hit the World Tour since the Siem Reap two-star in February of 2020, where she took fifth with Crissy Jones.
Partnered with Stockman, who is traveling to Rwanda from the Gstaad four-star, Callahan is the No. 3 seed for the tournament.
A not so short flight over, Delaney Mewhirter is competing in her second FIVB in as many weeks, playing in the Leuven one-star with Melissa Fuchs-Powell. After being deep on the reserve list, the two have jumped up to the No. 8 seed in the qualifier, while fellow Americans Zana Muno and Crissy Jones have also squeaked into the qualifier as the No. 15 seed.
Belgium will mark Mewhirter’s second tournament with Fuchs-Powell. They took a fifth in the Tel Aviv one-star at the end of the 2019 season.
As for Belgium, they’ll be looking, like their fellow Americans, to be moving onward, and upward.
