First Asian Stop for Women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour
女子沙排SWATCH－FIVB世界巡回赛亚洲第一站[/COLOR]
Shanghai, China, April 26, 2006 - Jinshan Beach hosts Round Two of the 15-event women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour stops May 23-28 as the best international Beach Volleyball players prepare for their first of two Asian events this season.
The third annual Jinshan Beach competition has attracted 25 countries for the $400,000 Chinese Open with the 67 current entries the most entries for a women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour stop in China. The 2004 stop in Shanghai had 58 entries with 53 teams competing in 2005.
Asia will also host the 2006 women's season finale as Thailand will stage the last top on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour November 1-5 in Phuket. The Chinese Open marks the ninth-straight year that China has hosted the international tour starting in 1998 when Dalian host the first of three women's events.
Joining tandems from host China in the competition will be teams from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the Ukraine and Venezuela.
The event will also feature the men's 2006 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour season opener as China hosts a double gender event for the second-straight year. The men's competition will conclude May 27 with the women's medal matches to be played May 28. The 2006 women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour will open its 15th-season May 10-14 in Modena, Italy.
The Chinese Open will be the 136th women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball event (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain.
Heading the list of womens entries will be Adriana Behar (37 years old) and Shelda Bede (33). The 2006 Chinese Open will be Adriana and Shelda's seventh appearance in China as the Brazilians have posted three gold medal finishes in the Asian country with a second, a third and a fourth to their credit along with $134,300 in earnings.
The SWATCH-FIVB World Tour's top team in career earnings with $1,970,115, Adriana and Shelda also rank first in gold medals with 31 titles. Two-time SWATCH-FIVB World Champions (1999 and 2001), Adriana and Shelda enter 2006 with a 516-102 SWATCH match mark (83.5%) since forming their partnership at the end of the 1995 season.
Adriana and Shelda placed third and second in the previous two Jinshan Beach as a pair of teams competed for the 2004 Chinese Open title while Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca upset their Brazilians rivals in the 2005 Shanghai finale.
Juliana (22 years old) and Larissa (24) enter the 2006 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour season opener as the points championship after winning six gold medals in 15 starts last season with 14 podium placements. The young Brazilians set a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour single-season earning's record in 2005 with $409,750 to better the previous record of $332,000 set in 1996 by Emanuel Rego and ZeMarco de Melo of Brazil.
Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands, who won the 2003 women's Chinese Open in Lianyungang with Rebekka Kadijk, returns for the 2006 event with second-year partner Sanne Keizer. Leenstra and Kadijk defeated Germany's Suzanne Lahme and Danja Musch for the 2003 title. While Musch has retired from international play, Lahme returns in 2006 with Geeske Banck.
The best finish for the host country in the women's Chinese Open was a 2000 bronze medal for Rong Chi and Zi Xiong at Maoming). The teams of Lu Wang/Wenhui You (2004) and Tian Jian/Wang Fei (2005) have placed fourth in the last two Chinese Opens on Jinshan Beach. All three teams competed in the Olympic Beach Volleyball competition for China.
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