Gstaad, Switzerland, July 26, 2008 – The FIVB has confirmed the Preliminary Round (pool round robin) for the women’s Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Tournament after the Drawing of Lots took place on Saturday evening in Gstaad, Switzerland. Two thousand Beach Volleyball fans, professional players, VIPs and local dignitaries packed into the Menuhin Festival tent in the beautiful Swiss Alps resort to see the 24 women’s teams divided into the six groups of four that will make up each Preliminary Round of the Olympic tournaments in Beijing that run through August 9-14. The knockout stages run August 15 to 22. Reigning Olympic women’s gold medallists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor of USA face Norway’s Nila Ann Hakedal and Ingrid Torlen, Cuba’s Dalixia Fernandez Grasset and Tamara Larrea Peraza and Japan’s Mika Teru Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara in the women’s Pool B. Under the supervision of FIVB Executive Vice President Vicente Araujo and FIVB Beach Volleyball Director Angelo Squeo and observed by BOCOG officials, the pool composition was completed by Swiss Beach Volleyball star Stefan Kobel and Swiss Paralympian Heinz Frei as follows: Women’s Preliminary Round pools Pool A Pool B Pool D Pool E Pool F |
