Lausanne, Switzerland, May 19, 2014 - With three events in the books, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has plenty to talk stats about with its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. This week, the FIVB World Tour resumes after a one-week break with the women’s US$75,000 FIVB Prague Open starting Wednesday and going through Sunday.
Men return in another week with the double-gender US$150,000 Anapa Open in Russia.
As we continue to nibble around the net with interesting stats from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, here are some more ‘crunchy nuggets’ to chew on this week after the first three events of 2014:
• European men rule – European men’s teams have outnumbered the other three confederations 80-68 in the first three events, resulting in winning seven of the nine medals so far in the first three events. Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai won in Fuzhou, their first ever FIVB World Tour win, then finished it up the following week in Shanghai with their second. Last year’s FIVB World Tour Points Champions Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia followed up their silver medal in Shanghai with gold in Puerto Vallarta. Other pleasant surprises for Europe have been Jon Stiekema/Christiaan Varenhorst of the Netherlands winning their first medal, a bronze in Fuzhou, Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik winning their second ever, a bronze in Shanghai, and Italy’s twin brothers Matteo and Paolo Ingrosso winning their first-ever medal, a silver in Puerto Vallarta. These three teams were seeded 12th, 11th, and 14th, respectively
• United States men shut out – Probably just as big a surprise as Europe winning 78% of the men’s medals has been the fact that the North, Central America, and Caribbean Confederation has only one medal, and it was won by Mexico, which had never medaled on the FIVB World Tour. Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen won the bronze on their country’s home soil breaking Mexico’s 118 event medal-less streak. The United States has not been able to muster any better than a three fifth-place finishes from their eleven men’s teams’ entries.
• Kerri and Juliana are the new No. 1s – Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States won her 47th career gold medal in season-opening event in Fuzhou to become the all-time women’s leader in FIVB World Tour victories, passing Larissa Franca of Brazil. It was Kerri’s 90th World Tour event, in a career that began in 2001, and has included three pauses for the birth of her three children, compared to 115 for Larissa. While Larissa’s long-time teammate Juliana Felisberta da Silva is still two victories behind Kerri at 45, she did pass Larissa as the all-time leader in career women’s FIVB World Tour earnings with US$1,348,725 after her semifinal win in Puerto Vallarta. Juliana accomplished her feat in 113 World Tour events over a career that began in 2003.
• Number of entries by Confederation/Country: Overall, the first three events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour had 281 total teams, including 148 men’s and 133 women’s tandems. The European Confederation (CEV) had 142 total teams entered in this year’s first three events, including 80 men’s and 62 women’s duos to lead the FIVB Confederations. Second in total numbers was Asia (AVC) with 58 total teams (25 men, 33 women) with North, Central American and Caribbean (NORCECA) third with 51 (28 men, 23 women) and fourth was South America (CSV) with 30 total teams (15 men, 15 women). Individually, China led all countries with 24 total teams (11 men, 13 women), followed by Germany with 23 (11, 12) and tied for third was Brazil and the United States with 21 each as Brazil had 10 men, 11 women’s and the USA had 11 and 10.
• Match wins by Confederation/Country: Overall in men’s competition, the CSV won 59.1 percent (39-27) of its matches with NORCECA second at 53.0% (53-47), the CEV third at 50.8% (153-148) and the AVC fourth with 34.7% (26-49) counting Top 24 elimination, pool play and qualifying matches. Individually for men, Latvia had the best percentage at 67.6% (25-12), followed by Italy at 65.6% (21-11) and Brazil third at 63.8% (30-17). In women’s action, the CSV led with at 71.4% (65-26) followed by NORCECA at 46.6% (41-47), CEV at 45.2% (99-120) and AVC fourth at 44.4% (48-60). Individually, Brazil topped all women’s play at 75.0% (54-18) with Argentina second at 68.8% (11-5), the United States third at 64.3% (27-15) and Germany fourth at 62.7% (37-22).
• Main draw wins by seeds: For the men, seeds 1, 2 and 7 all tied at 82.4% (14-3 each) with seed 4 next at 76.5% (13-4). For the women, seed No. 2 topped the winning percentage at 85.7% (18-3) with seed 3 in second at 81.3% (13-3) and seeds 7 and 4 tied for third at 75.0% (12-4) with seed No. 1 in fifth at 73.7% (14-5).
• Match wins by events played together as a team: Men – 26 to 50 events 64.9% (37-20), 11 to 25 59.2% (61-42) with teams who have played together three or less tournaments had the lowest win percentage at 43.2% (86-113). Also for men, for individuals who have played over 200 events, 68.% (17-8), 101 to 200 62.9% (78-46). Women – as a team over 100 57.1% (12-9), 4 to 10 56.5% (96-74); over 200 events played individually 72.2% (26-10), 101 to 200 62.2% (79-48).
• Match wins by combined age: Men 70 and over 60.0% (12-8), 60 to 69 52.1% (49-45) and 50-59 51.1% (140-134). Women 60 to 69 68.8% (55-25), 50 to 59 49.4% (123-126) and 40 to 49 45.1% (73-89).
• Entries by combined age of team: youngest men – 34 (1 team), oldest men - 72 (1); youngest women – 35 (2), oldest women – 71 (1). Most teams of combined age: men – 52 (11); women – 49, 50, 51, 52, 57 (5 each).
NET TIME
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 21 venues in 18 countries. This year’s FIVB World Tour includes a record 10 FIVB Grand Slam events, the inaugural Grand Slam Finale and 10 FIVB Open Tournaments throughout the world, helping expand the door for development of the sport even further.
The 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 will have $1 million each in prize money, the most in FIVB Grand Slam history.
The 10 FIVB Open tournaments in 2014, seven double-gender, two men only and two women only, will 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 includes a record four age-group FIVB World Championships along with the 2014 Nanjing (China) Youth Olympic Games (Aug. 17-27). The FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 World Championships (Acapulco, Mexico, July 15-20) will debut this year while the U23 FIVB World Championships (Myslowice, Poland, June 10-15) debuted in 2013. This year will mark the 14th annual U21 FIVB World Championships (Larnaka, Cyprus, July 23-27) and the 13th annual U19 FIVB World Championships (Porto, Portugal, July 29-Aug. 3).