With the European Continental Cup, international Beach Volleyball returns to the island of Rhodes after a six-year absence and following a string of very successful World and European Open tournaments. Estonia’s men and Greece’s women are the strong favorites in Pool G, but with three of the four participating teams in each gender qualifying to the next phase, the encounters for Greece and Estonia are expected to be just for honors - plus a better seeding in the next round. Greece’s Maria Tsiartsiani/Vassiliki Arvaniti, No. 13 in the FIVB World Rankings, are the star attraction of the competition for the home crowd that is expected to fill the Centre Court to full capacity every evening at the “Kallipateira” Sports Centre, just south of downtown Rhodes. Between them, the Greeks share two European and nine National Championship titles, as well as seven medals in FIVB World Tour Open tournaments. Arvaniti, who played in both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be aiming at a third Olympic appearance in London 2012. Tsiartsiani made her Olympic debut in 2008 in Beijing. Estonia and Cyprus are hardly expected to challenge the Greeks in the women’s competition, where a big question mark looms over Romania, which is fielding youngsters that have never had international exposure up to now. In the men’s competition in Rhodes, Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik, Olympians in Beijing two years ago, have split up. Vesik has teamed up with Kaarl Jaani and Kais will play with his brother Kaarel, who returns to international competition after a year’s absence. Challenging the Estonians for the top position of Pool G will be Greece’s reigning national champions Manos Xenakis and Giorgos Kotsilianos, plus the second team of Panayotis Mourtzios and Nikos Zoupanis. Xenakis and Kotsilianos are fresh from scoring one the biggest success of men’s Beach Volleyball for Greece - a 13th place at the Milner Open of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour in The Hague. Cyprus is also fielding its top teams, including the reigning national champions Jimmy Apostolou and Michael Kushnerev, but, if all teams keep their seeds in the semi-finals, will probably have to battle it out with Romania for third place in Rhodes. The full match schedule will be released following the Technical Meeting, i.e. on Thursday morning. Competition in Rhodes begins Thursday evening with the women’s semi-finals and continues Friday with the men’s semis. The bronze medal matches are scheduled for Saturday with the finals following Saturday evening. | |
