Lausanne, Switzerland, May 26, 2014 — With four women’s events and three men’s tournaments completed, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has even more information to talk stats about with its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
This week, the FIVB World Tour continues this week with the double-gender US$150,000 Anapa Open in Russia. The men have had two weeks off from tour events while the women had one week before competing in last week’s very popular FIVB Prague Open in the Czech Republic.
As we continue to enjoy the appetizers around the net with interesting tidbits of stats from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, here are some more ‘spicy meatballs’ to savor this week after the first four women’s and first three men’s events of 2014:
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European Confederation dominates final four – All four semifinal teams in the FIVB Prague Open were from the European Confederation (CEV). The only previous time European women accomplished this on the FIVB World Tour was in 2012 at the FIVB Aland Open in Finland with Prague silver medalists Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler of Germany winning the gold over Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, and Russia’s Ekaterina Khomyakova/Ukolova winning the bronze over Simone Kuhn/Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland. Europe also added two more teams with fifth-place finishes, marking the ninth time that six European Confederation women’s teams finished in the top eight of an FIVB World Tour event.
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Germany places two teams in the semifinals – Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler and Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst both made the final four, continuing Germany’s women’s progress that has included appearances in 15 semifinals of the 19 FIVB World Tour events since the beginning of 2013, tied with Brazil for the most for women. This is also the third time that Germany has placed two teams in the final four during that span, continuing the success from last season’s FIVB Xiamen Grand Slam and Durban Open. Only Brazil (10 times) and Russia (once) have placed two teams in the semi-finals in the last two seasons. It is also the fifth time overall for Germany with the previous two occurrences at the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam in 2009 and FIVB Marseille Grand Slam in 2008.
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Czech Republic wins its first gold medal – 12 times before the FIVB Prague Open, a team from the Czech Republic had reached the final four in an FIVB World Tour event but had lost all 12 previous semifinal matches, never reaching the finals. The last time was Prague gold medalists’, Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, only previous final four at the Berlin Grand Slam last season. The Czech Republic has been only slightly more successful in bronze medal matches, winning only four of the 12 on the FIVB World Tour, with Eva Celbova/Sona Novakova winning the last medal for the European Nation in July of 2004 at the Mallorca event. Perhaps it was Brazil’s absence from the final four that proved to be good fortune for the Czechs; Brazil has ten of those 12 semifinal victories over the Czech Republic with Cuba having one, and Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, the Czech’s gold medal match victims, having the other.
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Five-straight-podiums streak for China broken – China’s Xinyi Xia/Chen Xue’s 9th- place was the best finish for China at the FIVB Prague Open, breaking that country’s streak of placing a team on the podium for five consecutive FIVB World Tour events, dating back the event in Phuket last year.
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Women’s qualifiers continue to struggle in Pool Play –For the third time in the four events this season, only three teams who gained entry into the tournament through the qualification tournament made it past pool play into the 24-team single elimination rounds. This is a stark contrast to last season, when all eight women’s qualification teams advanced in an FIVB World Tour event, for the first time ever, in the Corrientes Grand Slam, and six teams advanced four other times, in Shanghai, The Hague, Berlin, and Xiamen Grand Slams.
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Men’s Qualification Percentages: Of the three men’s events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, , here are some numbers and percentages for FIVB Confederations and countries who have had teams compete in the qualification tournaments and had one or more of the eight teams who advanced to each main draw. Overall for the men, the AVC has had 28.57% (four of 14) of its teams advance to the main draw, the CEV has had 30.95% (13 of 42), the CSV has had 57.14% (four of seven) and NORCECA has had 37.50% (six of 16). Among individual countries by confederation, China (AVC) has qualified 50% (2 of 4), Germany (CEV) 50% (2 of 4), Brazil (CSV) 60% (3 of 5) and the United States (NORCECA) 80% (4 of 5).
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Women’s Qualification Percentages: Of the four women’s events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. Overall for the women, the AVC had 19.05% (four of 21 teams qualify), CEV had 35.29% (18 of 51), CSV had 100.0% (4 of 4) and NORCECA had 54.55% (6 of 11). Among individual countries by confederation, Japan (AVC) has qualified 40% (2 of 5), Germany (CEV) 100% (4 of 4), Brazil (CSV) 100% (2 of 2) and Mexico (NORCECA) 100% (3 of 3).
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 one 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).