In a rematch of the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games final, Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin overcame Venezuela’s Rolando "Peter" Hernandez and Jose "Tigrito" Gomez once again, triumphing 21-16, 21-18.

Dmitri Barsouk and Nikita Liamin then sealed victory with a 21-17, 21-10 win over Jesus Villafane and Jackson Henriquez.

In the only other match in Pool A, Canada defeated Morocco 2-0 thanks to wins for Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter against Adil Bsina and Mohamed al Hachdadi - 21-19, 21-11 - and Sam Pedlow and Grant O’Gorman against Zouheir Elgraoui and Mohamed Abicha - 21-13, 21-15.

With two wins each, Russia and Canada are now leading the pool and are on course for a decider on Saturday (July 9), when they are due to meet each other.

If Canada eventually claim one of the two available Olympic tickets in Sochi, Binstock and Schachter and Pedlow and O’Gorman will have a play-off to decide who will go to Rio 2016.

In the women’s competition, China picked up two wins today by beating Paraguay and Mexico in Pool A.

Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia defeated Paraguay’s Erika Sofia Mongelos Bobadilla and Patricia Carolina Caballero Peña 21-11, 21-13, while Chunxia Chen and Ningya Tang overcame Michelle Sharon Valiente Amarilla and Gabriela Filippo 21-13, 21-19.

Chen and Tang then beat Mexico's Claudia Rios and Santoyo Salazar Gloria Itzel 21-16, 21-16, while Xue and Xia defeated Diana Estrada and Zaira Orellana 22-20, 21-13.

China are now leading Pool A together with hosts Russia, who are also still undefeated after a hard-fought win over Czech Republic.

Evgenia Ukolova and Anastasia Barsuk beat Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannová 18-21, 21-19, 15-13 and Ekaterina Birlova and Nadezda Makroguzova defeated Kristyna Kolocova and Michala Kvapilová 21-13, 21-17.

At the FIVB Gstaad Major Series event, the men’s top seeds and defending champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt posted wins over pairs from Switzerland and Poland in Pool A.

The Brazilians beat Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel 21-15, 21-17 having earlier defeated Switzerland’s Jonas Kissling and Marco Krattiger 21-17, 21-14.

In the women’s competition, 11th seeds Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy clinched top spot in Pool F by beating sixth-seeded Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa and Elize Maia of Brazil 17-21, 21-18, 15-9.

Three rounds of elimination matches are scheduled for tomorrow with Menegatti and Orsi Toth already through to the second stage having received a bye along with the seven other pool winners.