MARSEILLE, FRANCE, July 18, 2008 - German teams comprise half of the remaining teams in the US$350,000 World Series13, as six teams are still in contention for the medal rounds which will be held on Sunday. In addition to looking for the country's first medal on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour since Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig won a Bronze in Austria on August 4, 2007, the German teams are battling for position for the second country spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Helke Claasen and Antje Roder of Germany have been playing together since 2005, and previously had advanced to just one semifinal, taking a fourth in Porto Santo in 2006. However in Marseille, the duo is undefeated after outlasting Russians Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalya Uryadova 22-20, 18-21, 15-12 on Friday to move into their second career Final Four together. In control for the second German Olympic spot alongside Goller and Ludwig is the tandem of Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau. Pohl and Rau suffered an early loss during the first day of main draw competition, but since then have battled back through the contender's bracket, winning four straight matches. They began Friday’s play with a 21-18, 29-27 victory over France’s Deborah Giaoui and Eva Hamzaoui, setting up a contest against Belgium’s Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbet Van Breedam. Pohl and Rau improved their head-to-head record against the Belgian women to 3-0 with a 24-26, 21-19, 15-7 victory. Mouha and Van Breedham can point to their Marseille finishes the past few years as a telling sign of their improvement. In 2006 they finished 57th, last year they placed 25th, and this year go home with a seventh. While they have locked up their position in Beijing, the loss to the Germans meant that Pohl and Rau, who will meet up with the Russian duo to a spot in the semifinals, inched closer to sealing their Olympic berth. "We have so many teams and the confidence is big," Pohl said. "Everyone tries to play as hard as possible; this is a strange situation. We have had a very good season but this tournament makes it difficult to keep the distance we built up. I’m not thinking about the qualification (for the Olympics), just about playing well." The team pushing Pohl and Rau in what is the final Olympic qualifying event which has been in progress since the start of 2007 is Reike Brink-Abeler and Hella Jurich. Brink-Abeler and Jurich had won three straight matches coming into Friday, including two against Olympic-bound teams. However in their only action of the day they suffered a 21-16, 21-19 defeat to the top-seeded team in the tournament, Carolina and Maria Clara Salgado of Brazil. Saturday they will face off against another Brazilian team, second-seeded Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Leao with a semifinal berth at stake.
"It's really good because now we can wait while our opponents play two matches," Carolina, the younger sister, said. "This is a really important tournament for us, because we need points to get into the main draw at Klagenfurt. I don’t feel pressure because I don't feel like the top team. I just want to have fun and play good so that we can enjoy this."
The World Series13, the ninth of 16 double-gender events on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour, features all four medal matches for the two genders on Sunday. The winning teams in each gender will share the $28,000 first-place prizes. |
