A total of 60 men’s teams from 26 countries and 62 women’s teams from 30 countries will descend on the iconic Copacabana Beach, the site of the Rio 2016 volleyball event, for six days of competition. 

The event is the third of the year on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of last year.

Action is due to begin with a qualification tournament tomorrow to determine the final eight spots in the 32-team main draw for each gender.

This will be followed by two days of round-robin play with the top three teams in each of the eight pools advancing to the single-elimination knockout rounds.

Pool play will be held on Wednesday (March 9) and Thursday (March 10), while the single-elimination knockout rounds are due to take place on Friday (March 11).

The quarter-finals and semi-finals for each gender are scheduled for Saturday (March 12) ahead of the medal matches for both genders and awarding ceremonies on Sunday (March 13).

As required, country quota play-off matches will be played today to determine the final teams in tomorrow's qualification tournament.

The top-seeded men’s team is Brazilian pairing Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt, the defending FIVB world champions. 

The Netherlands' Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst are ranked second, while the United States’ Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson are third. 

The top-seeded women’s team is reigning FIVB world champions Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas of Brazil, who are followed in the pecking order by compatriots Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca, and Canadian duo Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley.

Last year’s test event for Rio 2016 at Copacabana Beach saw Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins win the men’s gold medal, and Antunes and Franca head the women's podium for the hosts.

The Olympic qualification process began in 2015 with all FIVB World Tour events - except the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals - up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic ranking.

It will determine 15 spots for each gender that will take part in each 24-team field at Rio 2016.

Including the FIVB Rio Grand Slam, 11 men’s and nine women’s events remain on the Olympic qualifying calendar for the FIVB World Tour.