FIVB confirms Preliminary Round pool composition for men's and women's Olympic Beach Volleyball Tournaments after Drawing of Lots in Gstaad
Gstaad, Switzerland, July 26, 2008 – The FIVB has confirmed the Preliminary Round (pool round robin) for the men’s and women’s Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Tournaments 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 men’s teams and 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.
Athens 2004 champions Ricardo and Emanuel of Brazil are up against Australia’s Josh Slack and Andrew Schacht, Georgia’s Renato “Geor” Gomes and Jorge “Gia” Terceiro and Angola’s Emanuel Fernandes and Morais Abreu in the men’s Pool C.
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
Tian Jia-Wang, China (No. 1 seed)
Maaseide-Glesnes, Norway
Van Breedam-Mouha, Belgium
Montagnolli-Swoboda, Austria
Pool B
Walsh-May-Treanor, USA (No. 2 seed)
Hakedal-Torlen, Norway
Fernandez Grasset-Larrea Peraza, Cuba
Teru Saiki-Kusuhara, Japan
Pool C
Juliana-Larissa, Brazil (No. 3 seed)
Barnett-Cook, Australia
Uryadova-Shiryaeva, Russia
Saka-Rtvelo, Georgia
Pool D
Xue-Zhang Xi, China (No. 4 seed)
Goller-Ludwig, Germany
Koutroumanidou-Tsiartsiani, Greece
Augoustides-Nel, South Africa
Pool E
Branagh-Youngs, USA (No. 5 seed)
Pohl-Rau, Germany
Esteves Ribalta-M. Crespo, Cuba
Kadijk-Mooren, Netherlands
Pool F
Talita-Renata, Brazil (No. 6 seed)
Karantasiou-Arvaniti, Greece
Schwaiger-Schwaiger, Austria
Candelas-Garcia, Mexico
Men’s Preliminary Round pools
Pool A
Xu-Wu, China (No. 1 seed)
Herrera-Mesa, Spain
Kais Kr.-Vesik, Estonia
Gosch-Horst, Austria
Pool B
Rogers-Dalhausser, USA (No. 2 seed)
Heyer-Heuscher, Switzerland
Conde-Baracetti, Argentina
Samoilovs-Plavins, Latvia
Pool C
Ricardo-Emanuel, Brazil (No. 3 seed)
Schacht-Slack, Australia
Geor-Gia, Georgia
Fernandes-Morais, Angola
Pool D
Marcio Araujo-Fabio Luiz, Brazil (No. 4 seed)
Barsouk-Kolodinsky, Russia
Doppler-Gartmayer, Austria
Lione-Amore, Italy
Pool E
Nummerdor-Schuil, Netherlands (No. 5 seed)
Klemperer-Koreng, Germany
Kjemperud-Skarlund, Norway
Laciga M.-Schnider, Switzerland
Pool F
Brink-Dieckmann Ch., Germany (No. 6 seed)
Gibb-Rosenthal, USA
Boersma E.-Ronnes, Netherlands
Asahi-Shiratori, Japan
FIVB and BOCOG officials were scheduled to determine the Preliminary Round match schedule by Monday.
A “serpentine system” was followed to determine the exact final seeding in the pools, using the Olympic Qualification Ranking confirmed by the FIVB on Thursday, July 24. Chinese men’s pair Linyin Xu and Penggen Wu and women’s pair Jia Tian and Jie Wang were the No. 1 seeds and were placed automatically in Pool A in each tournament as per FIVB regulations after both pairs ranked among the first six teams. Seed Nos. 2 to 6 were placed in Pools B to F, respectively. Seed Nos. 7-9 were drawn randomly in Pools F, E, D and Nos. 10-12 drawn randomly in Pools C, B, A before Nos. 13 to 18 and then Nos. 19-24 were drawn randomly in Pools A to F.
The SWATCH FIVB World Tour 1 to 1 Energy Grand Slam, the super-successful USD 600,000 event that runs through July 21-27 in Gstaad this year, hosted the Drawing of Lots. Amid a carnival-type atmosphere in the Menuhin Festival tent, attendees were entertained during the event with dazzling performances from famous Swiss pop stars, classical musicians, dance troupes, comedians and video action showing the some of the best athletes in the Beach Volleyball world.
The state-of-the-art 12,000-seater Chaoyang Park in Beijing will be the venue of the fourth Olympic Beach Volleyball Tournaments, apart from two “Lucky Loser” matches to be played on a court adjacent to Centre Court. The top two teams of each pool advance to the knockout Round of 16 stage, along with the two best third-placed teams. The remaining four third-placed teams play two Playoff matches to determine the final two places (Lucky Losers) in the Round of 16.
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