Lausanne, Switzerland, July 28, 2014 — Returning to the United States for the second straight year after an absence of a decade, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) will now resume the European portion on the calendar of its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Following last week’s ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a US$1,000,000 FIVB Grand Slam in Long Beach (Calif.) USA, the FIVB World Tour has returned to Austria after a one-year absence for the vastly popular $800,000 FIVB Klagenfurt A1 Grand Slam in Klagenfurt..
After this week’s Austrian adventure, the FIVB World Tour takes a two-week break before resuming in Poland for the $800,000 FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam..
Last week’s double-gender ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a $1,000,000 FIVB Grand Slam in the popular Southern California region of the USA saw top-seeded home-country teams thrill the overflow crowds to win both the men’s and women’s gold medals in Long Beach. Poland and the USA the other two men’s medals while Brazil and the Slovak Republic captured the other two women’s medals in the seventh double-gender FIVB Grand Slam on the 2014 event calendar. The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam was the 11th event of the 2014 FIVB World Tour as well as being the seventh of 10 double-gender FIVB Grand Slam tournaments currently on the 2014 calendar.
LONG BEACH MEN
In the men’s competition a rematch of the previous week’s gold medal match in The Hague came out the opposite as winning the gold medal in another thrilling three-set finale was USA’s top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal over Poland’s second-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel. USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal won their sixth FIVB gold medal as a team and Individually it was the 29th career FIVB gold medal for Dalhausser and the 10th for Rosenthal. Capturing the bronze medal to the delight of the partisan home-country fans was USA’s Todd Rogers/Theodore Brunner who came out of the qualification tournament to defeat Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif in three tightly contested sets.
LONG BEACH WOMEN
The women’s gold medal was won by USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings who defeated Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas in two sets. In the women’s bronze medal match, Slovak Republic’s surprising Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova who upset Spain’s higher-seeded Liliana Feernandez/Elsa Baquerizo in three sets. It was the sixth FIVB gold medal for USA’s Ross/Walsh Jennings in just 11 tournaments together while individually it was the 50th career FIVB gold medal for USA’s Walsh Jennings and the 16th career FIVB gold medal for Ross.
MEN’S WINNERS STILL ON TOP
Last week’s FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam men’s champions (USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal) remain firs in the point standings of the 2014 FIVB World Tour and at the top of the earnings list following their massive, $70,000 gold medal payday in Long Beach.
WOMEN’S WINNERS MOVE UP
The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam women’s gold medal winners (USA’s Ross/Walsh Jennings) are second in the season point standings and continue to lead the money standings on the 2014 FIVB World Tour.
Gold in last week’s ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a $1,000,000 FIVB Grand Slam, earned $70,000 for the winning team in each gender to split with $52,000 split by each silver medal team, $40,000 split by each of the two bronze medalists and $30,000 split by each of the fourth place teams.
BIG SLATE
The 2014 FIVB World Tour will be in the last of four consecutive double-gender FIVB Grand Slams in Klagenfurt. After Gstaad three weeks ago, the Netherlands two weeks ago, Long Beach (Calif).USA last week, this run will end this week at the FIVB Klagenfurt A1 Grand Slam in Austria.
MEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
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 Dalhausser/Rosenthal duo continues as the men’s point leader with 4,720 points. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins is second with 4,010 points in the men’s 2014 FIVB World Tour point standings followed by Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with 3,810, Brazil’s Emanuel Rego/Pedro Salgado fourth with 3,500, fifth is Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai with 3,420 and sixth is Poland’s Prudel/Fijalek with 3,400 points.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour men’s season earnings, the leading team continues to be USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal with $294,000 followed by Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel with $201,000, Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt with $162,000, Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins, fourth with $149,000 and Italy’s Lupo/Nicolai fifth with $144,000.
WOMEN’S POINTS/EARNINGS
For the women, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli are still at the top with 4,680 points followed by USA’s Ross/Walsh Jennings with 4,580, Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas with 4,380, China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue fourth with 4,340, and fifth is now Spain’s Fernandez/Baquerizo with 3,400.
In the 2014 FIVB World Tour women’s season earnings, continuing to lead is USA’s A. Ross/Walsh Jennings with $254,000 followed by Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas second with $180,000, Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli third with $179,375, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler fourth with $164,000 and China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue fifth with $155,175.
MEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 10 men’s tournaments so far in 2014 on the FIVB World Tour, 11 countries have at least one final four placement. With nine final four placements to lead the way so far is the United States (four gold medals, one silver medal, three bronze, one fourth). With eight final four placements so far is Brazil (three silver medals, two bronze medals, three fourth places). With four final four placements each are Latvia (two gold medals, one silver, one fourth), Germany (one bronze, three fourths) and Italy (two gold medals, one silver, one fourth). With three final four placements each are Poland (one gold, two silvers) Switzerland has three final four placements (two bronze medals, one fourth) With two is Russia (one gold, one silver) while Kazakhstan (fourth), Netherlands (bronze) and Mexico (bronze) have the other final four placements so far with one final four for each country.
WOMEN’S FINAL FOURS
In 11 women’s events to start the year, 10 countries have earned at least one final four finish. Brazil leads with 12 final four placements (two golds, five silvers, two bronzes and three fourths), Germany has nine final fours (three gold medals, three silvers, two bronzes and one fourth). China has four (one silver, two bronze, one fourth) along with Czech Republic (two gold medals, one bronze, one fourth), Spain (one silver, three fourths) and the United States has four final four placements (four gold medals) as does. Netherlands has two final four finishes (one bronze, one fourth) along with Russia (one silver, one bronze) and the Slovak Republic (two bronze medals). Austria (one fourth) has one final four finish each.
MEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
Based on percentage, statistically, in men’s action after 10 events, USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal leads with a 42-7 record (85.7% winning percentage) followed by USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne with a 32-11 mark (72.7%) while tired for third are Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with a 35-14 mark (71.4%) and Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai is 30-12 (71.4%), fifth is Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins with a 35-15 record (70.0%) and sixth is Brazil’s Alvaro Filho/Ricardo Santos with 23-10 record (69.7%). The 42 match wins by USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal is the most by any men’s team so far this season on the FIVB World Tour with Brazil’s Alison/Schmidt and Latvia’s Samoilovs/J. Smedins are tied or second with 35 wins each.
WOMEN’S WINNING PERCENTAGE
For the women to date following 11 events on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, USA’s April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings continue to lead with a 42-4 record (91.3%) while second is Czech Republic’s Slukova/Kolocova with a 29-8 record (78.4%), third so far is Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli with a 52-16 record (76.5%) while fourth is Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas at 39-15 (72.2%) and fifth is Germany’s Borther/Buthe with a 29-11 record (70.7%). The 52 match wins by Brazil’s Juliana/Antonelli is the most by any team on this year’s FIVB World Tour.
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 Finale 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, 000,000 each in prize money, the most in FIVB Grand Slam history. The 10 FIVB Open tournaments in 2014, seven double-gender, two men only events 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 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 FIVB U23 World Championships (Myslowice, Poland, June 10-15) debuted in 2013. This year will mark the 14th annual FIVB U21World Championships (Larnaka, Cyprus, July 23-27) and the 13th annual FIVB U19 World Championships (Porto, Portugal, July 29-Aug. 3).
The 2014 FIVB age groups world championships got started in Poland in June 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 at the FIVB U23 World Championships. Winning the history-making gold medals in Mexico this year were 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.