News FIVB 14/03/2013 Beach Volleyball Age Group World Championships' cities confirmed Lausanne, Switzerland, March 14, 2013 – TheInternational Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is pleased to announce the hostcities and dates of its Beach Volleyball World Championships for age groupsU19, U21 and U23 taking place in 2013. The 13th edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championshipswill take place in Umag, Croatia from June 20 to 23 while the FIVB BeachVolleyball U19 World Championships, in its 12th edition, will be held for asecond consecutive year in Larnaka, Cyprus from July 11 to 14. As a major enhancement to the FIVB beachvolleyball calendar, the FIVB Beach Volleyball U23 World Championships - whichwill take place in Myslowice, Poland from June 6 to 9 – has been added toprovide another opportunity for players to participate in an internationaltournament with the goal of reducing the gap between age-group and senior levelcompetition.“We are looking forward to another exciting yearof age group beach volleyball, especially with the addition of the under 23World Championships which will assist in the development of beach volleyballand compliment the growth achieved via the Continental Cup,” FIVB BeachVolleyball Commission President Mr Vicente Araujo said. “Every year, we see thelevel of competition at these annual World Championships get better and betterand with such outstanding venues as Umag, Larnaka and Myslowice we can expectmore of the same in 2013.” Each event will consist of a main draw of 32teams (eight pools of four teams with the top two teams advancing to the singleelimination final phase), comprising six teams per gender per FIVB Confederation(with a maximum of one team per gender per country) and two teams per genderfor the host country.The Confederations will select their best sixranked teams either via the last U19/21/23 Continental Championships orU19/21/23 Continental Tour in 2013 or 2012 or FIVB selection criteria*. In the event a Confederation is unable to usetheir quota of six teams per gender, the FIVB will fill the vacancies eithervia a qualification tournament (one day, single elimination, minimum of eightteams and a maximum of 16) or FIVB selection criteria*. Poland will be looking to continuing its winningstreak in the men’s U19 and U21 Championships. In the 2012 edition, MichelBryl and Kacper Kujawiak took home the title for the U19 ChampionshipwhilePiotrKanto and Bartosz Losiak were crowned U21 champions. Poland also made historylast year, having two of its teams go head-to-head for the gold medal in theU19 Championship.Last year’s women’s U19 Championship in Larnaka saw Lithuanianduo Monika Povilaityte and Leva Dumbauskaite edge out Poland’s defendingchampions Karolina Baran and Katarzyna Kociolek in the final. In thewomen’s U21 Championship in Halifax, Canada, Switzerland’sNina Betschart and Anouk Verge-Depre were crowned world champions. With that win, Betschartjoined Brazil’s Carolina Salgado (2004 and 2005) as the only women in theevent’s history to win gold in back-to-back years with different partners.The FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 WorldChampionships were first held in 2002 while the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 WorldChampionships started in 2001.FIVB Beach Volleyball Age-GroupWorld Championships for 2013 Event Host City Dates U23 World Championships Myslowice, Poland June 6-9 U21 World Championships Umag, Croatia June 20-23 U19 World Championships Larnaka, Cyprus July 11-14 * Please refer to the following link for the Qualification Process: http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/U19/2013/document/Procedures_WCHS_Qualification_Process_13.03.13.pdf Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News