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Lausanne, Switzerland, May 12, 2008 - The 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour will be staged on two continents this week with the women resuming competition in Asia as qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games continues for the planet's top Beach Volleyball players.
With the women idle this past week, the men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour competed for the first-time in the Czech Republic where Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal of the United States snapped Brazil's streak of eight-straight gold medals on the international circuit by winning the Prague title with a 21-13 and 23-21 win in 47 minutes over Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann of Germany.
Prior to the start of the men's event in Roseto degli Abruzzi, for the third annual Italian Open presented by Abruzzo, the women's second annual Seoul Open begins on the Korean peninsula. Both SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops will feature US$175,000 in prize money along with possible qualifying points for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
With the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games field featuring 24 teams per gender with no more than two tandems per country, a pair’s best SWATCH eight finishes will be considered when determining the field for the Summer Games in the Chinese capital.
The Seoul Open will be the 20th of 28 Beijing qualifying events for women and the Italian Open presented by Abruzzo is the 21st of 29 qualifying events for men. The qualifying process for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games started in May 2007 and will conclude July 20 after a 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in Marseille, France.
Both the Seoul Open and Italian Open presented by Abruzzo will begin Tuesday with possible country quota playoff matches followed by qualifying Wednesday to determine the final eight Main Draw spots. The "money" rounds begin Thursday for both stops with the medal matches being played Sunday with the final two teams in Korea and Italy competing for the $28,000 first-place prize.
The Seoul Open, the third of 19 women's event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, will be staged at the Han River Jamsil Citizen Park where Tamsin Barnett and Natalie Cook are the defending champions as the Australians upset China's Jia Tian and Jie Wang in the finals to win their first FIVB gold medal together.
The Italian Open presented by Abruzzo, the fourth of 20 men's event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, will be held on the Palabeach at the Lungomare Trento in Roseto degli Abruzzi. Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes won their eighth of 10 FIVB gold medals by defeating Brazilian rivals Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos in the 2007 Roseto degli Abruzzi finale.
After opening the season with double gender events in Australia (Adelaide, March 25-30) and China (Shanghai, April 28-May 3), the SWATCH FIVB World Tour will feature a series single gender stops before the two circuits combine for a first-time event in Barcelona, Spain (May 26-June 1).
Before Gibb and Rosenthal's win in Prague, Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado of Brazil captured the gold medals in Adelaide and Shanghai by defeating China's Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in the finals. Brazil produced the two women finalists in Australia and China with Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca defeating Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro in Adelaide with the two teams switching the podium spots in Shanghai.
Following this week's events, the men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour continues in Europe for an event in Croatia (Zagreb, May 20-25) before heading to Barcelona. The women travel to Japan (Osaka, May 20-25) before traveling back to Europe and the $350,000 Barcelona event |
