Lausanne, Switzerland, November 3, 2014 — Following last week’s visit to Argentina, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) will now have a men-only event on the calendar of its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. After last week’s $150,000 FIVB Paraná Open, the FIVB World Tour continues this week by visiting Qatar for the first time for the $75,000 FIVB Doha Open.
Last week’s double-gender $150,000 FIVB Paraná Open saw Canada and Brazil win the men’s and women’s gold medals respectively. Completing the men’s podium in Paraná were teams from Chile and Canada. Brazil actually swept the women’s podium for the 21st time in FIVB history and the second time this season. The FIVB Paraná Open was the 16th event of the 2014 FIVB World Tour. For Canad, it was the second men’s gold medal for the North American nation in FIVB World Tour history and the first time in tour history that Canadian men have won two medals in the same event. For Brazil, it was their 137th women’s gold medal, 114th women’s silver medal, 115th women’s bronze medal and 366th medal overall out of 276 women’s events in the history of the FIVB World Tour.
Paraná MEN
In the men’s competition, winning the gold medal in impressive fashion was Canada’s newest pairing of Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter who was playing in just their sixth FIVB World Tour event by defeating Chile’s Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt in straight sets. Individually it was the first career FIVB gold medal for both players and the first medal and final four placement for Chile. Canada’s duo was a perfect 7-0 in matches in Paraná. Capturing the bronze medal was Canada’s Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton who defeated Germany’s Thomas Kaczmarek/Sebastian Fuchs in straight sets.
Paraná WOMEN
In just their sixth tournament as a team, winning the women’s gold medal was for the fourth consecutive event was Brazil’s powerful Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes who fought off the challenge from compatriots Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado. In the women’s bronze medal match, Brazil’s stopped USA’s Irene Hester/Caitlin Ledoux in two sets. Recording a perfect 7-0 match record in Paraná, it was the 50th career FIVB gold medal for Brazil’s Larissa and the 22nd career FIVB gold medal for Brazil’s Talita. The new Brazilian team has a 35-4 match record, including 28 straight wins on this year’s FIVB World Tour.
MEN’S WINNERS FRESH START
Last week’s FIVB Paraná Open Canada’s men’s champions Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter earned 500 points on the FIVB World Tour and picked up the gold medal purse of $11,000.
WOMEN’S WINNERS SOLIDY TOP SPOT
The FIVB Paraná Open women’s medal winners (Brazil’s Larissa/Talita) have only played in six women’s events so far this year on the FIVB World Tour and moved up to 14th in the FIVB World Season Rankings and 12th in the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour point standings. The impressive tandem has also moved up to fifth place on the money list after their win and now have earned $210,000 in just six events.
Gold in last week’s $150,000 FIVB Paraná Open, earned $11,000 for the winning team in each gender 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.
MEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
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 Lupo/Nicolai fifth with $187,000.
WOMEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli pair continues 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 $210,000.
MEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 15 men’s tournaments so far in 2014 on the FIVB World Tour, 17 countries have at least one final four placement. With 11 final four placements to lead the way are Brazil (two gold medals, four silver medals, two bronze medals, three fourth places) and the United States (four gold medals, one silver medal, four bronze, two fourths). With six final four placements each is Latvia (two gold medals, two silvers, two fourth places) followed by Italy with five (two gold medals, two silver medals, one fourth). With five final four placements is Germany (one bronze, four fourths). With three final four placements each are Poland (one gold, two silvers), Russia (one gold, one silver, one bronze) and Switzerland (two bronze medals, one fourth) With two is Canada (one gold, one bronze), Chile (one silver), the Netherlands (one gold, one bronze) while Australia (bronze). Austria (fourth), Canada (fourth), France (gold), Kazakhstan (fourth), Mexico (bronze) and Spain have the other final four placements so far with one final four for each country.
WOMEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 16 women’s events so far this year, 12 countries have earned at least one final four finish. Brazil leads with 23 final four placements (seven gold medals, seven silver medals, four bronze medals and five fourths), Germany has 11 final fours (three gold medals, four silvers, three bronzes and one fourth). The United States has six (four gold medals, one bronze, one fourth), China has five (two silvers, two bronze, one fourth) as does, Czech Republic has four (two gold medals, one bronze, one fourth) along with Spain (one silver, three fourths). Netherlands has three final four finishes (two bronze, one fourth) while with two final fours are Italy (one silver, one fourth place), Russia (one silver medal, one bronze) and the Slovak Republic (two bronze medals). Austria (one fourth) and Greece (one fourth) each has one final four finish.
MEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
Based on percentage, statistically, in men’s action after 14 events, USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal leads with a 48-10 record (82.8% winning percentage) followed by Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with a 47-18 mark (72.3%), while third is Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo at 36-14 (72.0%), fourth is USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne with a 43-17 mark (71.7%) and fifth is Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins with a 50-20 record (71.4%). The 50 match wins by Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins is the most by any men’s team so far this season on the FIVB World Tour while with 48 wins is USA’s Rosenthal/Dalhausser second and third is Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt with 47 wins.
WOMEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
For the women to date, following 15 events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, Brazil’s newest team of Larissa/Talita at 35-4 (89.7%) have taken over the lead while second is USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings with a 49-6 record (89.1%), third is Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova/Kristyna Kolocova with a 39-12 record (76.5%), fourth so far is Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli with a 71-22 record (76.3%) while fifth is Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas at 50-19 (72.5%). The 71 match wins by Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli is the most by any team on this year’s FIVB World Tour. Among women, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas has the second-most wins with 50 and third is USA’s A. Ross/Walsh Jennings with 49 match wins.
NEXT UP
With the grand slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour complete, the tour continues through December with two FIVB Open events remaining. Remaining on the 2014 calendar are one double-gender FIVB Open event along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament.
Following last week’s visit to Argentina for the double-gender FIVB Parana Open, the 2014 FIVB World Tour is heading to Qatar for the men-only FIVB Doha Open (Tuesday through Saturday) 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 eight 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, six 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.