Paraná, Argentina, October 28, 2014 — Returning to Argentina for the second straight year, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) resumes its FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour with this week’s double-gender US$150,000 FIVB Paraná Open.
In the final phase of the 2014 FIVB World Tour with FIVB Open events, this is the sixth time the FIVB World Tour has had an event in Argentina and it is the first time visiting Paraná. Last year, the FIVB World Tour returned to Argentina for the first time in 13 years with the double-gender FIVB Corrientes Grand Slam.
The 2014 FIVB World Tour stop is being held in Paraná through Sunday in a purpose-built venue at Balneario Thompson in Paraná, located in the Entre Rios province on the eastern shore of the Paraná River. On Wednesday two teams each from host nation Argentina and the United States along with single duos from Azerbaijan, Canada, Italy and Uruguay advanced to Wednesday’s start of the 32-team women’s main draw.
The FIVB Paraná Open continues the final portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour, as the third of six season-ending FIVB Open events that include two remaining double-gender events and one men-only tournament. The FIVB Paraná Open 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 which begins on Wednesday for women and Thursday for men. It will conclude with a single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams. The women’s semifinals and medal matches will be held this Saturday and the men’s semifinals and medal matches on Sunday.
The total entry list for the 2014 FIVB Paraná Open includes 45 men’s teams from 18 countries and 36 women’s teams from 14 countries selected by their respective national federations.
FIVB PURSE, TOURNEY TOTALS
The FIVB Paraná Open is the 312th FIVB men’s tournament since its first event in 1987 and the 276th FIVB women’s tournament since FIVB began women’s competitions in 1992. Gold medal winning teams in each gender in FIVB Paraná Open will split $11,000, silver will receive $8,000, bronze medalists get $6,000 and the fourth place finishers will earn $4,500 of the $150,000 total purse.
WOMEN’S QUALIFYING
The eight women’s teams advancing to Wednesday’s start of pool play from qualifying were Argentina’s Michella Di Cesare/Florencia Di Cesare, Argentina’s Maria Sancer/Florencia Amieva, Azerbaijan’s Iulia Karimova/Raquel Goncalves, Canada’s Victoria Altamore/Julie Gordon, Italy’s Laura Cavalluzzi/Jennifer Luca, USA;s Allison Daley/Emily Stockman, USA’s Irene Hester/Caitlin Ledoux and Uruguay’s Eliza Cabo/Maria Nieto.
With 11 teams in the women’s qualifier, three matches were required to be played on Wednesday. The top five qualification seeds all advanced without having to play a match as one of the eight teams that will complete the women’s 32-team main draw field.
Results saw an all-Argentina match won by Sancer/Amieva over Milena Churin/Cecilia Peralta, 21-15, 21-18 in 35 minutes; Italy’s Cavalluzzi/Luca defeated Argentina’s Maria Capelleti/ Evangelina Gallay, 21-13, 21-10, in 32 minutes and Argentina’s DiCesare sisters held off Uruguay’s Karina Cardozo/Mariana Guerrero in two overtime sets, 22-20, 23-21 in 45 minutes.
TEAM ARGENTINA
As the host nation, Argentina has three men’s and two women’s teams automatically pre-seeded into the main draw. For the men, the Argentine teams in the main draw are Santiago Aulisi/Leandro Aveiro, Pablo Bianchi/Julian Azaad and Ian Mehamed/Nicolas Capogrosso.
For the women, the pre-seeded main draw teams from Argentina are Olympians Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug and Maria Zonta/Julieta Puntin. Also advancing to the women’s main draw for Argentina from Wednesday’s qualifying tournament were Sancer/ Amieva and the Di Cesare sisters.
Additionally, Argentina has three men’s team in their qualification tournament on Wednesday. The men’s qualification teams from Argentina are Sebastian Quiroga/Facundo Del Coto, Alejandro Ronconi/Angel Verzzali and Exequiel Yacob/Joel Leon.
FIVB WORLD TOUR LEADERS
The top three teams in each gender at FIVB Open events receive 500, 450 and 400 points respectively on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins is at the top of the men’s point leader board with 5,770 points. USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal duo, 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 and fifth is USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne 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 Daniele Lupo/Paulo Nicolai fifth with $187,000.
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli pair has moved further ahead at the top with 6,740 points followed by Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas with 5,660, USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings third with 5,420, China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue fourth with 4,950, Netherland’s van Iersel/Meppeling fifth with 4,640, sixth is Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler with 4,610 and seventh 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 $261,375, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas third with $233,000, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler fourth with $214,000 and Brazil’s Larissa France/Talita Antunes fifth with $199,000.
ARGENTINE HISTORY
Men’s champion duo in Corrientes last year was Latvia’s new duo of Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins while women’s champion team was Sophie van Gestal/Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands.
Through the 2013 event, Argentina has hosted a total of five FIVB World Tour events (4 men, 1 women) with three events held in Mar del Plata. In the men’s totals, Brazil has five medals, followed by Argentina with two and with one men’s medal each in Argentina are Australia, Italy, Switzerland and the USA.
After one FIVB World Tour women’s event held in Argentina through 2013, Brazil leads the medal parade with two total medals followed by the Netherlands with one.
THIS IS Paraná
Paraná is the capital city of the Argentine Province of Entre Rios, located in Northeast Argentina on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fe, capital of the neighboring Santa Fe Province. The city has a population of 247,863. Paraná, is not only the head of the provincial government, but also an important river port for the transshipment of cereals, cattle, fish and lumber from the surrounding region. The principal industries installed are the manufacturing of cement, furniture, and ceramics.The center of the city features colonial churches, European styles such as that of the 3 de Febrero Theatre or the Government House, the mixed styles of the city's Cathedral, and modern towers like those near the Parque Urquiza park. The city is connected to the city of Santa Fe on the other side of the Entre Rios by the Hernandarias subfluvial Tunnel opened in 1969. The tunnel runs under the massive Paraná river.
NEXT UP
With the grand slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour complete, the tour continues through December with four FIVB Open events remaining spread across the globe. Remaining on the 2014 calendar are three double-gender FIVB Open events along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament.
This week is the 2014 FIVB World Tour is in Argentina for the double-gender FIVB Paraná Open.
After that events, the 2014 FIVB World Tour will head to Qatar for the men-only FIVB Doha Open next week (Nov. 4-8) then on to India for the double-gender FIVB Vizag Open (Nov. 25-30) in India 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$9.6 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 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 had $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.