Lausanne, Switzerland, September 29, 2014 — Following last week’s return to Brazil for the 28th consecutive year, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) will now take a one-week break on the calendar of its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Following last week’s $800,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam, the last FIVB Grand Slam this season, the FIVB World Tour will conclude the 2014 season with four double-gender and one men-only FIVB Open Events. Next week, the world tour will visit China for the third time this year for the $150,000 FIVB Xiamen Open.
Last week’s double-gender $800,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam in the Barueri suburb of the huge Brazilian metropolis saw Netherlands and Brazil treat capacity crowds to win the men’s and women’s gold medals respectively. Completing the men’s podium in São Paulo were teams from Brazil and Poland. While Brazil treated the home-country fans by winning the women’s gold medal, Italy captured the silver and the Netherlands earned the bronze medal. The FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam was the 14th event of the 2014 FIVB World Tour as well as being the last of 10 double-gender FIVB Grand Slam tournaments on the 2014 calendar. For the South American beach volleyball powerhouse, it was the 131st silver medal for Brazil out of 310 men’s all-time FIVB World Tour events and 135th gold for Brazil out of 274 women’s all-time FIVB World Tour events.
São Paulo MEN
In the men’s competition, winning the gold medal in impressive fashion was Netherlands’ newest pairing of Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst who spoiled a third straight Brazilian gold medal sweep by defeating Brazil’s iconic ‘back-to-the-future’ team of Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego in straight sets. Individually it was the 10th career FIVB gold medal for and the first FIVB World Tour gold for Varenhorst. Capturing the bronze medal was Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak who won a match between two first-time FIVB World Tour final four teams in three sets over Canada’s Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter.
São Paulo WOMEN
In just their fifth tournament as a team, winning the gold was for the third straight tournament by Brazil’s powerful Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes who pushed to the limit to win in three sets, finally overcame Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi toth. In another match-up between two powerful beach volleyball countries, the women’s bronze medal match saw Netherlands’ Marleen van Iersel/Madelein Meppelink defeat Brazilian sisters Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado. Recording a perfect 7-0 match record in Stare Jablonki, it was the 49th career FIVB gold medal for Brazil’s Larissa and the 21st career FIVB gold medal for Brazil’s Talita.
MEN’S WINNERS FRESH START
Last week’s FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam men’s champions (Netherlands’ Nummerdor/Varenhorst) had a near-perfect 6-1 match record, earned 800 points in the 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings and $57,000 for their gold medal payday in Brazil for a very healthy start to a new partnership on the court.
WOMEN’S WINNERS MOVE UP
The FIVB Stare Jablonki Slam women’s undefeated 7-0 gold medal winners (Brazil’s Larissa/Talita) have only played in five events so far this year and have moved up to 12th place already in the season point standings and are already fifth in the money standings on the 2014 FIVB World Tour.
Gold in last week’s $800,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam, earned $57,000 for the winning team in each gender to split with $43,000 split by each silver medal team, $32,000 split by each of the two bronze medalists and $24,000 split by each of the fourth place teams.
MEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
The top three teams in each gender at FIVB Grand Slam events receive 800, 720 and 640 points respectively on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. With a fifth-place finish in São Paulo, Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins has moved up to the top of the men’s point leader board with 5,770 points. USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal duo, who did not play in São Paulo, is second with 5,440 points in the men’s 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings followed by Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with 5,330, Poland’s Mariusz Prudel/Grzegorz Fijalek fourth with 4,600, fifth is USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne is sixth with 4,280,.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour men’s season earnings, the leading team continues to be USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal with $318,000 followed by Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt with $241,000, Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel third with $240,000, Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins fourth with $233,500 and Italy’s Lupo/Nicolai fifth with $187,000.
WOMEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli pair is still at the top with 6,240 points followed by Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas with 5,660, USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings with 5,420, Netherland’s van Iersel/Meppeling fourth with 4,640, fifth is Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler with 4,610and sixth is Germany’s Karla Borger/Britta Buthe with 4,580.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour women’s season earnings, continuing to lead is USA’s A. Ross/Walsh Jennings with $282,000 followed by Brazil’s Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli second with $250,375, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas third with $233,000, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler fourth with $214,000 and Brazil’s Larissa/Talita fifth with $199,000.
MEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 13 men’s tournaments so far in 2014 on the FIVB World Tour, 14 countries have at least one final four placement. With 11 final four placements to lead the way is Brazil (two gold medals, four silver medals, two bronze medals, three fourth places) followed by the United States with 10 final fours (four gold medals, one silver medal, four bronze, one fourth). With six final four placements each are Latvia (two gold medals, two silvers, two fourth places) followed by Italy with five (two gold medals, two silver medals, one fourth). With four final four placements is Germany (one bronze, three fourths). With three final four placements each are Poland (one gold, two silvers) and Switzerland (two bronze medals, one fourth) With two are Russia (one gold, one silver) and Netherlands (one gold, one bronze) while Australia (bronze), Austria (fourth), Canada (fourth), Kazakhstan (fourth), and Mexico (bronze) have the other final four placements so far with one final four for each country.
WOMEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 14 women’s events so far this year, 11 countries have earned at least one final four finish. Brazil leads with 19 final four placements (five gold medals, six silver medals, three bronze medals and five fourths), Germany has 11 final fours (three gold medals, four silvers, three bronzes and one fourth). China has four (one silver, two bronze, one fourth) along with Czech Republic (two gold medals, one bronze, one fourth), Spain (one silver, three fourths) and the United States also has four final four placements (four gold medals). Netherlands has three final four finishes (two bronze, one fourth) while with two final fours are Italy (one silver, one fourth place), Russia (one silver medal, one bronze) and the Slovak Republic (two bronze medals). Austria (one fourth) has one final four finish.
MEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
Based on percentage, statistically, in men’s action after 13 events, USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal leads with a 48-10 record (82.8% winning percentage) followed by Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with a 47-18 mark (72.3%), while third is Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo at 36-14 (72.0%), fourth is USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne with a 43-17 mark (71.7%) and fifth is Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins with a 50-20 record (71.4%). The 50 match wins by Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins is the most by any men’s team so far this season on the FIVB World Tour while with 48 wins is USA’s Rosenthal/Dalhausser and third is Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt with 47 wins.
WOMEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
For the women to date, following 14 events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings continue to lead with a 49-6 record (89.1%) while second is Brazil’s newest team of Larissa/Talita at 28-4 (87.5%), third is Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova/Kristyna Kolocova with a 39-12 record (76.5%), fourth so far is Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli with a 64-21 record (75.3%) while fifth is Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas at 50-19 (72.5%). The 64 match wins by Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli is the most by any team on this year’s FIVB World Tour.
NEXT UP
With the grand slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour now complete, the tour continues through December with five FIVB Open events spread across the globe. Remaining on the 2014 calendar are four double-gender FIVB Open events along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament.
Next up, the 2014 FIVB World Tour will travel to China for the double-gender FIVB Xiamen Open (Oct. 7-12), followed by the double-gender FIVB Parana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2).
After those two events, the 2014 FIVB World Tour will head to Qatar for the men-only FIVB Doha Open (Nov. 4-8) then on to India for the double-gender FIVB Chennai Open (Nov. 25-30) before concluding in South Africa with the double-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14).
FIVB 2014
Based in Lausanne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar features a record purse of US$10.2 million with a season that extends from late April to mid-December competing at 19 venues in 17 countries. This year’s FIVB World Tour includes a record 10 FIVB Grand Slam events, the inaugural Grand Slam Finale and nine FIVB Open Tournaments throughout the world, helping expand the door for development of the sport even further.
The 10 FIVB Grand Slam competitions, all double-gender, have eight with $800,000 in total purses while both The Hague, Netherlands and the Long Beach, Calif., USA event have $1, 000,000 each in prize money, the most in FIVB Grand Slam history. The nine FIVB Open tournaments in 2014, seven double-gender, one men only event and one women only event, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.
NEXT GEN
As part of the initiatives of FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° and his leadership team, the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball international calendar also included a record four age-group FIVB World Championships and the 2014 Nanjing (China) Youth Olympic Games Aug. 17-27).
Poland’s Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol won the men’s gold medal for the home country and Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird capturing the women’s gold medal for the second annual FIVB U23 World Championships in Myslowice, Poland. Capturing the gold medals in the inaugural FIVB U17 World Championships in Acapulco, Mexico were Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener and USA’s Morgan Martin/Kathryn Plummer. Winning the 14th FIVB U21 World Championships in Larnaka, Cyprus were Poland’s Michal Bryl/Kacper Kujawiak and Canada’s Sophie Bukovec/Tiadora Miric. The 13th FIVB U19 World Championships in Porto Portugal were won by Brazil’s Arthur Mariano/George Wanderley for the men and in the women’s competition the winners were Brazil’s Andressa Cavalanti/Eduarda Lisboa.