Lausanne, Switzerland, May 25, 2014—Following two very busy weeks in China, another in Mexico and one more this past week in the Czech Republic, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has now completed the first four events on the calendar of its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Last week’s women’s US$75,000 FIVB Prague Open saw host country Czech Republic win one medal and Germany the other two to complete the podium in the first single-gender FIVB Open on the 2014 calendar. The FIVB Prague Open was the fourth event of the 2014 FIVB World Tour as well as being the third of 10 FIVB Open tournaments and the only women’s only event currently on the 2014 calendar.
Winning their first FIVB World Tour gold medal and first for their country, Czech Republic Olympians Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova held of Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler in a 50-minute, three-set final. In the women’s bronze medal match, Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst won their second medal of the season to go with their gold won on May 4 in China at the FIVB Shanghai Grand Slam.
The FIVB Prague Open gold medal winners we competing in their second event of the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and moved up to ninth in the season point standings and seventh in the money standings. Gold in each FIVB open event in 20014 earns $11,000 for the team to split with $8,000 split by each silver medal team, $6,000 split by each of the two bronze medalists and $4,500 split by each of the fourth place teams.
With the men enjoying a two-week break from FIVB World Tour competition, both the men and women are back together again in this week’s double-gender US$150,000FIVB Anapa Open in Russia from Tuesday through Sunday.
The top three teams in each gender receive 250, 225 and 200 points respectively at FIVB Open events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins has 1,570 points to lead the men’s 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings followed by Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai with 1,300, Brazil’s Emanuel Rego/Pedro Salgado with 860, Italy’s Ingrosso twins (Paolo and Matteo) with 730 and leading a group of four tied for fifth in points with 720 is Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen.
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli have moved to the top of the women’s list with 1,560 points followed by Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst with 1,440, and Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas and China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue are tied for third with 1,380 points each. In fifth place in points with 1,280 is China’s Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia.
In three men’s tournaments so far in 2014 on the FIVB World Tour, Italy has three final four placements including two gold medals and one silver while Latvia has three final fours with one gold medal, one silver and one fourth to lead the way. Brazil has two final fours (one silver, one fourth) and Germany also has two final fours with one bronze and one fourth place finish. Netherlands and Mexico have the other final four placements so far with each country earning one bronze medal each.
In four women’s events to start the year, six countries have earned at least one final four finish. USA, Germany, Brazil and the Czech Republic each have one gold medal while Brazil has six final four placements (one gold, two silvers, one bronze and two fourths), Germany has four (one gold, one silver, one bronze and one fourth), China has three (one silver and two bronze) and Austria (fourth), Czech Republic (gold) and USA (gold) have one final four finish each.
Based on percentage, statistically, in men’s action after three events, Italy’s Lupo/Nicolai is 13-1 (92.9% winning percentage), Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik tandem is next with a 6-1 record for one event and a 85.7% winning percentage while third is Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins with a 17-4 record (81.0 percent). Brazil’s Emanuel Rego/Pedro Salgado is fourth at 75.0% (9-3) while tied for fifth at 70.0% and 7-3 in overall matches is USA’s Sean Rosenthal/Phil Dalhausser and Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira.
For the women to date, USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross is 11-1 to start the season (91.7%) while next is Germany’s Ludwig/Walkenhorst at 16-3 (84.2%) and Australia’s Nicole Laird/Mariafe Artacho at 5-1 (83.3%). Fourth so far is Germany’s Karla Borger/Britta Buthe at 80.0% (8-2) and fifth is Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas at 78.9%. In sixth at 78.6% and with the most wins this year at 22-6 is Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli.
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 Final and 10 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 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 one women only, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.