Brighton, England, September 4, 2008 - A women’s team from Brazil has won the gold medal at the last four SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships for players under the age of 21 and Amanda Maltez and Natasha Paula Borges hope to continue the streak for the South American country. Seeded second in the 24-team Main Draw at the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships presented by Nivea Sun, Amanda Maltez and Natasha won a pair of matches here Thursday over teams from the Netherlands and Austria to put the Brazilians in position to win their pool will being guaranteed a spot in Saturday’s opening single-elimination round. The eighth annual SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships features competition for both men and women as Friday’s matches will determine the lineup for the 16-team single-elimination brackets where matches will be played Saturday to set the schedule for Sunday’s semi-finals and medal contests. While the women play only one round of 12 pool play matches Friday, each men’s team will compete twice on Brighton Beach. In addition to capturing gold medals, the winning teams will be awarded at “wild card” berths at a future SWATCH-FIVB World Tour events in either 2008 or 2009.
Being played at the Nivea Sun Yellowave, the first permanent beach sports venue in the United Kingdom, Amanda Maltez and Natasha are also seeking to become the seventh Brazilian women’s team to capture the FIVB U21 title since the start of the competition in 2001. Russians Anna Morozova and Alexandra Shiryaeva interrupted the South American streak in 2003 by winning the U21 crown in France. Amanda Maltez and Natasha can win their pool outright Friday in their final pool play match against 11th-seeded Jane Croson and Summer Ross, who are seeking to become the first-ever men’s or women’s team from the United States to medal at the SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships. The Americans, who are the youngest team in the competition (Croson is 15 and Ross 14), split their matches Thursday by defeating the Austrians and losing to the Dutch. Chasing the Brazilians for the gold medal at the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships are third-seeded Becchara Palmer/Alice Rohkamper of Australia and fourth-seeded Marleen Van Iersel/Daniëlle Remmers of the Netherlands. Palmer and Rohkamper claimed the silver medal at the 2007 SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships after losing the three-set finale to Lili Maestrini and Barbara Figueiredo Seixas of Brazil in Modena, Italy. Seixas also won the 2006 U21 title with Carolina Aragao in Myslowice, Poland. While the Brazilians and the Australians lead their pools outright with 2-0 records, Van Iersel and Remmers are tied with ninth-seeded Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova of the Czech Republic for their group leadership as both teams won their two matches Thursday. The 20-year old Van Iersel is competing in her ninth junior/youth world championship event after placing their the 2007 U21s with Marloes Wesselink. Of the remaining three pools, two of the groups have one team atop the standings while two tandems are tied for the lead in third. The pairs of 13th-seeded Oksana Bosjanok/Kadri Puri of Estonia and 24th-seeded Lisa Mittenzwei/Anni Schumacher of Germany are tied for the pool leadership. Leading their group’s outright are seventh-seeded Laura Longuet/Emma Larche of France and eighth-seeded Karla Borger/Britta Büthe of Germany as both teams posted 2-0 match marks Thursday.
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