Poland and Mallorca SWATCH Stops

Shelda Bede of Brazil Thursday in Myslowice, Poland

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, September 4, 2008 - While the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB Junior World Championships for players under the age of 21 are being staged in Brighton, England, the second international Beach Volleyball events for men and women after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are being staged in Mallorca and Poland.

With the second of two world finales in 2008 for up-and-coming players being the first major international Beach Volleyball event in England, the SWATCH FIVB World Tour continued at two sites Thursday with Myslowice hosting the women in Poland and the Mediterranean island of Mallorca staging a men stop with each tournament featuring US$175,000 in prize money.

The finals for both SWATCH FIVB World Tour events is set Sunday with the winning teams sharing the $28,000 first-place prizes.  While the women’s semi-finals are set for Saturday in Myslowice, the men’s”final four” matches will be played Sunday at the Plaza de Toros in Palma de Mallorca.

Led by Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly of Brazil, seven of the top eight-seeded teams advanced as expected to the third-round of the winner’s bracket in Myslowice with 24th-seeded Karin Lundquist and Angelica Ljungquist of Sweden broke the trend with upset wins over teams from Poland and Germany.

Lundquist and Ljungquist will challenge the top-seeded Shelda and Ana Paula in one of Friday’s opening winner’s bracket matches.  After losing their bid together to secure Brazil’s second spot in the in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Shelda and Ana Paula won their last two FIVB appearances with Grand Slam gold medals in Switzerland and Austria.

Other matches in the third-round of the women’s winner’s bracket in Myslowice are fifth-seeded Nila Ann Hakedal/Ingrid Torlen of Norway challenging the fourth-seeded Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) of Brazil while third-seeded Sona Novakova/Tereza Tobiasova of the Czech Republic playing sixth-seeded Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig of Germany while seventh-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler of Germany meeting second-seeded Maria Antonelli/Vanilda Leão of Brazil.

In Mallorca, 12th-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins made the only break-through to the third-round of the men's winner's bracket as the Latvians upset fifth-seeded Clemens Doppler and Peter Gartmayer of Austria 21-13, 18-21 and 15-8 in 50 minutes.  Fourth-seeded Jonas Reckermann and Mischa Urbatzka of Germany will be Samoilovs and Sorokins' opening opponent Friday.

Two Brazilian teams will also play each other in the third-round of the winner's bracket as sixth-seeded Joao Maciel/Bruno Oscar Schmidt challenge third-seeded compatriots Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado.  Eighth-seeded Benjamin Insfran/Franco Neto, a third unbeaten Brazilian team in the competition, challenges top-seeded Julius Brink/Christoph Dieckmann of Germany while seventh-seeded Pablo Herrera/Raul Mesa of Spain meeting second-seeded David Klemperer/Eric Koreng of Germany.

After this week’s competition, the international calendar takes a week off before the SWATCH FIVB World Tour returns to Brazil for the 22nd-straight season for a double gender event September 15-20 in Guarujà.

The 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar concludes with double gender events in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai, October 5-11) and China (Sanya, November 10-16).  Single gender events will also be staged in Bahrain for men (Manama, October 27-November 1) and Thailand for women (Phuket, November 4-9).