Stare Jablonki, Poland, August 18, 2014 - The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is in Poland this week - on the site of last year’s massive US$1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships - for the very popular double-gender US$800,000 FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam, which will take place on the spacious and picturesque grounds of the pristine Hotel Anders.
While there have been 23 FIVB World Tour events in Poland, this will be the 11th consecutive year a men’s event has been held in Stare Jablonki and seventh straight for women.
The 2014 FIVB World Tour stop is being held in Stare Jablonki through Sunday in a purpose-built venue with six competition courts on the pristine grounds of the picturesque Hotel Anders.
The ninth of 10 FIVB Grand Slams on the 2014 FIVB World Tour calendar, the FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam is using the FIVB format of a single-day qualification tournament on Tuesday for women and Wednesday for men to determine the final eight spots in each gender’s 32-team main draw tournaments, round-robin pool play with begin on Wednesday for women and Thursday for men. It will conclude with a single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams. The event is being played on the purpose-built site on the grounds of the spacious and popular Anders Hotel in Stare Jablonki.
Women’s single-elimination play will begin on Thursday and men’s on Friday with the women’s round of 16 and quarterfinals on Friday and men’s on Saturday. Women’s semifinals and men’s round of 16 and quarterfinals will be held on Saturday. The women’s medal matches closing the FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam will be held on Saturday. On Sunday, the men’s semifinals and medal matches will conclude the event.
Key Points:
• 78 men’s teams from 28 countries, 66 women’s teams from 24 countries entered in FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam
• USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal FIVB World Tour men’s point leaders and men’s money leaders
• Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli FIVB World Tour women’s point leaders, USA’s A. Ross/Walsh Jennings women’s money leaders
• Poland has four men’s teams, three women’s teams automatically pre-seeded into the main draw
• 13 of top 16 men’s teams and all 32 top men’s players from 2013 FIVB World Championships return to Stare Jablonki
• Women’s fields full of new teams, but German silver medalists Borger/Buthe back in Stare Jablonki
• There have been 23 total FIVB World Tour events in Poland, this is men’s 11th straight in Stare Jablonki, women’s seventh straight
• Brazil leads Polish medal parade with 15 men’s medals, 14 women’s medals
• Five-time gold medalists in Poland as a team, Brazil’s Juliana, Larissa return with different teammates
• The FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam is the 300tj FIVB men’s tournament and 273rd FIVB women’s tournament
• Golden teams split $57,000, silver split $43,000, bronze split $32,000 and fourth place teams split $24,000 of the $800,000 total purse
The total entry list for the 2014 FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam includes 78 men’s teams from 28 countries and 66 women’s teams from 24 countries selected by their respective national federations.
FIVB WORLD TOUR LEADERS
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.
USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal duo continues as the men’s point leader with 4,960 points. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins is second with 4,570 points in the men’s 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings followed by Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with 4,610, Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai fourth with 4,140 and fifth is Poland’s Mariusz Prudel/Grzegorz Fijalek with 3,880 points,.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour men’s season earnings, the leading team continues to be USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal with $301,000 followed by Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt with $219,000 and Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel third with $218,000.
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli are still at the top with 5,400 points followed by Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas with 5,020 and USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings third with 4,940 points.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour women’s season earnings, continuing to lead is USA’s A. Ross/Walsh Jennings with $265,000 followed by Brazil’s Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli second with $222,375 and Bednarczuk/Seixas third with $212,000.
TEAM POLAND
As the host nation, Poland has four men’s and three women’s teams automatically pre-seeded into the main draw. For the men, the Polish teams in the main draw are Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol, Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor, Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, and Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel. For the women, the main draw teams from Poland are Jagoda Gruszczynska/Karolina Baran, Dorota Strag/Katarzyna Kociolek and Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska.
Additionally, Poland will have one men’s team and one women’s teams in their respective qualification tournaments and one men’s and two women’s teams on the reserve list for the tournament. The men’s qualification team from Poland is Michal Bryl/Kacper Kujawiak while the Polish women’s qualification team is Aleksandra Kwiatkowska/Agnieszka Adamek. The men’s reserve team from Poland is Mateusz Lysikowski/Tomasz Wierzbicki and the women’s reserve teams from Poland are Angelika Niewinska/Natalia Latkowska and Maria Wloch/Natalia Gruszczynska.
STARE JABLONKI REPLAY
Winning the gold medal at the men’s 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Stare Jablonki was the duo of Alexendar Brouwer/Robert Meeuswen of the Netherlands. Winning the 2013 women’s FIVB World Championships gold medal in Stare Jablonki was China’s two-time Olympians Chen Xue/Xi Zhang.
The men’s silver medal in Stare Jablonki last year went to Brazil’s Ricardo Santos/Alvaro Filho while the men’s bronze medal was won by Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik over Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego. The women’s silver medal last year went to Germany’s Karla Borger/Britta Buthe while the women’s bronze was won last year by Brazil’s Liliane Maestrini/Barbara Seixas over USA’s Whitney Pavlik/April Ross. In all 13 of the top 16 men’s teams from 2013 return in tact while all 32 players return, with three new partnerships. Only one of the top women’s teams returns in last year’s German silver medalists Borger/Buthe
FIVB IN POLAND
While there have been 23 total events held in Poland, the competition in 2014 will be 11th men’s and seventh women’s FIVB World Tour event held
on the spacious grounds of the luxurious Anders Hotel in Stare Jablonki. In 2013, Stare Jablonki and the Anders Hotel played host to the $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
Featuring men’s-only competition for the first four years starting in 2004 as the venue, Stare Jablonki had a double gender FIVB Open tournament in 2008. Then Stare Jablonki moved up a step to hold Poland's first FIVB Grand Slams beginning in 2009.
Besides Stare Jablonki, the other Polish sites of FIVB international events have been Myslowice and Warsaw. Myslowice also hosted the FIVB Under-19 (2006) and FIVB Under-21 (2007) World Championships.
POLISH MEDALS
Through the 2013 event, Poland has hosted a total of 23 FIVB World Tour events (13 men, 10 women) over a 10-year period with Brazil leading the medal count in both genders. In the men’s totals after 13 events, Brazil has 15 medals, followed by the USA with six, Germany with five, Spain with four, and with one men’s medal each in Poland are Argentina, Australia, Austria, China, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Switzerland.
After 10 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Poland through 2013, Brazil leads the medal parade with 14 total medals followed by China with five, Germany and USA with three each, Italy with two and with one women’s medal each in Poland are Australia, Netherlands and Norway.
J’s BACK, AND NOW LARISSA, TOO
After sitting out last year’s FIVB World Tour, Brazil’s iconic Juliana Felisberta Silva returned to team with the very talented veteran Maria Antonelli. Juliana played domestically in 2013 following the one-year retirement of her legendary teammate Larissa Franca with whom she won an unprecedented seven FIVB World Tour season point championships between 2005 and 2012, the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. In addition to leading the women’s 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings and being second in earnings, overall the Juliana/Antonelli duo has a 58-17 record on this year’s FIVB World Tour, with four silver medals (Fuzhou, Puerto Vallarta, Berlin, Klagenfurt) and one bronze (The Hague). Antonelli played last season with Agatha Bednarczuk and finished fifth in the 2013 FIVB World Season Rankings.
Brazil’s Larissa made her return to the FIVB in The Hague, teaming with 2013 FIVB season point champion and fellow Olympian Talita Antunes where they finished ninth in their first tournament back with a 3-1 record, losing only to Brazil’s eventual champions Lima/Alves and the new duo went 2-2 and finished ninth in Long Beach, Calif. USA before capturing the gold medal in Klagenfurt, Austria with a 7-1 record.
The two Brazilian tandems of former partners met for the gold medal in Austria with Larissa/Talita claiming the win of Juliana/Antonelli in two sets, 22-20, 21-19. When they were a team, Brazil’s Juliana/Larissa won five gold medals in Poland, including four in Stare Jablonki.
FIVB PURSE, TOURNEY TOTALS
The FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam is the 309th FIVB men’s tournament since its first event in 1987 and the 273rd FIVB women’s tournament since FIVB began women’s competitions in 1992. Gold medal winning teams in each gender in Stare Jablonki will split $57,000, silver will receive $43,000, bronze medalists get $32,000 and the fourth place finishers will earn $24,000 of the $800,000 total purse.
THIS IS STARE JABLONKI
Stare Jablonki is a quaint village with a permanent population of about 700 located in the Mazury region of northern Poland, resting on the pristine shores of Lake Mazury. The venue is the expansive Hotel Anders. The hotel is situated at the shore of the Lake Szelag Maly, in the surrounding of majestic forests, on the border of the Sosny Taborskie Reserve. The scenery, lake, and fresh air have made it an ideal holiday destination.
NET POWER 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 nine FIVB Open tournaments in 2014, seven double-gender, one men only and one women only, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events, $75,000 for the single-gender.
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 along with the 2014 Nanjing (China) Youth Olympic Games (Aug. 17-27).
The 2014 FIVB age groups world championships got started in Myslowice, Poland with Poland’s Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol winning the men’s gold medal for the home country and Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird winning the women’s gold medal in the FIVB U23 World Championships. In Acapulco, Mexico, winning the history-making gold medals for the first-time event was Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener for the men and by USA’s Morgan Martin/Kathryn Plummer for the women. In the FIVB U21 world champions in Larnaka, Cyprus, men’s gold went to Poland’s Michael Bryl/Kacper Kujawiak and the women’s gold was won by Canada’s Sophie Bukovec/Tiadora Miric and the gold medal winners at the FIVB U19 World Championships in Porto, Portugal were won by Brazil’s Arthur Mariano/George Wanderley for the men and for the women, Brazil’s Andressa Cavalcanti/Eduarda Lisboa captured the gold medal.