News Beach volleyball 24/07/2013 Eight women’s teams remain unbeaten in Anapa Anapa, Russia, July 24, 2013– Eight teams started the first day of the women’s pool play main draw at theAnapa Open in Russia unbeaten. Five teams even stayed without set loss. Russia’s Olga Motrich and AlexandraShiryaeva, Poland’s Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska, Germany’s ChristineAulenbrock and Cinja Tillmann, Japan’s Takemi Nishibori and Sayaka Mizoe andTatyana Mashkova and Irina Tsimbalova from Kazakhstan all won both theirmatches on Wednesday in straight sets. In the men’s competition twoteams from Latvia and one each from Russia, Uruguay, Slovenia, France, USA andAustria advanced from the qualification tournament to complete the 32 teams maindraw. Mashkova and Tsimbalova oncourse for a medal in AnapaTatyana Mashkova and IrinaTsimbalova from Kazakhstan are one of five teams that ended the first day ofthe women’s main draw at the FIVB Anapa Open with two straight wins. In their first match the two 25-year olds defeated Russia’s Evgeniia Iakovlevaand Anastasiia Strugova 2-0 (21-11 21-13). Later on Wednesday they had to makemore of an effort against Norway’s Cindy Treland and Janne Pedersen (21-1821-18) in the pouring rain. More Zemljak and Pokersnik firstSlovenian men’s team to enter main drawNejc Zemljak and JanPokersnik won their qualification match at the Anapa Open on Wednesday and madehistory becoming the first men’s team from Slovenia to ever qualify for themain draw of a FIVB event. Fifteen teams competed in the men’s qualification tournament for eight spots inmain draw. Latvia managed to advance two teams, Russia advanced with a bye andthe other teams that won their qualification matches came from the US, Austria,France and Uruguay. More Kusano strives to make beachvolleyball more popular in JapanJapan is one of the leadingcountries in volleyball, the women’s team won bronze at the 2012 London OlympicGames and are ranked third in the world. But when it comes to beach volleyballthe first gold medal has to be claimed yet. “Beach volleyball is not very popular in Japan, compared to indoor”, AyumiKusano said on Wednesday after her first match at the FIVB Anapa Open. More The inaugural Anapa Open isthe second FIVB Open event after the Fuzhou Open in April. The 2013 calendarfeatures seven Opens in total, including five double-gender events. The Open events are no longerpart of the World Tour in 2013, in order to provide more opportunities forathletes worldwide to play. Anapa, a tourist town on theBlack Sea, is the third city to host a FIVB event after St Petersburg andMoscow. FIVBAnapa Open Tournament PageFIVBAnapa Open women’s schedule and resultsFIVBAnapa Open men’s qualification schedule and resultsFIVB Anapa OpenTwitter account Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News