Men’s pool pairings announced for 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships

The Hague, The Netherlands, March 30, 2015 - The men's pool matchups for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015 were determined here Monday at the Mauritshuis art museum with the Drawing of Lots for the 12 groups of four teams each for the preliminary phase of the competition.

THE COMPETITION

With men’s pairs from 28 countries from the five FIVB confederations competing in the 10th annual FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the 48 teams will start play June 26 at four sites in The Netherlands - The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam.  The 48-team women’s competition will be held at the same time.

The top two men’s teams from each pool will advance to the opening rounds of the elimination bracket July 1 and 2 along with the eight-best third-place finishers in each group determined by point and set ratios.  The first two days of play in the 32-team elimination bracket will be held at the four pool play sites.  The Hague will host the semi-final and gold medal matches for both men and women on July 4 and 5.

DUTCH TEAMS PLACED

Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands will be the top-seeded men’s pair in the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and will be the featured team in Pool A when group play begins July 26 in The Hague.  Nummerdor and Varenhorst captured two FIVB World Tour events at the end of last season in Brazil and South Africa.

Defending world champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands will be seeded 20th in the competition and will headline Pool E where group play will be staged in Rotterdam.  Brouwer and Meeuwsen, a team hampered by injuries in 2014, defeated Ricardo Santos and Álvaro Filho of Brazil at the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Stare Jablonki, Poland.

Other Dutch teams in the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are Steven van de Velde/Michiel van Dorsten (30th-seeded playing in Group F at Apeldoorn), Wessel Keemink/Sven Vismans (39th-seeded playing in Group J at Amsterdam) and a fifth pair to be determined in June after the completion of the Dutch Premier League.  The "wild card" Dutch team will be seeded 40th and with play in Pool I in The Hague.

BRAZILIANS & FORMER CHAMPIONS

Led by 2003 world and 2004 Olympic champions Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, all four Brazilian teams entered in the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be the top-seeded pair in their group.  Emanuel and Ricardo, who rekindled their partnership at the end of last season after playing almost five season with different players, will be seeded seventh and will play in Group G in Amsterdam.

Other Brazilian pairs in the world championships are Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt (Pool C playing at Apeldoorn), Filho/Vitor Gonçalves Felipe (Pool K playing at Amsterdam) and Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Salgado (Pool L) playing at Rotterdam.  Alison teamed with Emanuel to win the 2011 world championship in Rome before the pair netted the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

"THIN BEAST" & SENIOR CITIZEN

The United States will have two of the top-seeded teams in group play - Phil "Thin Beast" Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal (Pool B playing at Amsterdam) and Tri Bourne/John Hyden (Pool I playing at The Hague).  Dalhausser claimed the gold medals at the 2007 world championships and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games when he was paired with Todd Rogers.  Hyden is the oldest (41 years, 8 months, 15 days) player to win an FIVB World Tour event when he teamed with Bourne to win last season’s stop in Berlin.

OTHER TOP PAIRS FROM EUROPE

Other top-seeded teams in the world championships will be Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel of Poland (Pool D playing at Rotterdam), Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy (Pool E playing at Rotterdam), Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia (Pool F playing at Apeldoorn), Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany (Pool H playing at The Hague) and Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia (Pool J playing at Amsterdam)

POLISH PRIDE

With The Netherlands hosting five FIVB World Tour events previously, Fijalek and Prudel captured the last tournament in the European when the gold medal match was played Scheveningen beach in The Hague.  It was the first-ever FIVB World Tour gold medal for a Polish team as Fijalek and Prudel out-lasted Dalhausser and Rosenthal 21-18, 13-21 and 15-13 in a 59-minute match.

SEEDINGS & TICKETS

Teams were seeded by the sum of their athlete seeding points on the day before the Drawing of Lots (March 29).  Monday's was carried out in the presence of representatives from the FIVB, Nevobo (the Dutch Volleyball Federation), sponsors, city officials, members of Beach Team Netherlands, Tournament ambassadors and members of the media.

Tickets for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015 can now be purchased at www.netherlands2015.fivb.org/en/tickets.

THE POOLS

Pool A at The Hague
Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands
Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland
Carlos Escobar/David Vargas of El Salvador
Nivaldo Gomez/Sergio Gonzalez of Cuba

Pool B at Amsterdam
Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal of the United States
Isaac Kapa/Christopher McHugh of Australia
Alexandr Dyachenko/Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan
Sam O'Dea/Michael Watson of the New Zealand

Pool C at Apeldoorn
Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil
Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria
Tiago Santos/Jefferson Santos Pereira of Qatar
Joshua Court/Damien Schumann of Australia

Pool D at Rotterdam
Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel of Poland
Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter of Canada
Jesus Villafañe/Jackson Henriquez of Venezuela
Usama Eltranisy/Ayman Shoukry of Egypt

Pool E at Rotterdam
Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy
Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands
Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl of Austria
Rodrigo Salinas/Matías Tobar of Chile

Pool F at Apeldoorn
Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia
Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt of Chile
Steven van de Velde/Michiel van Dorsten of The Netherlands
Ruslan Bykanov/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia

Pool G at Amsterdam
Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos of Brazil
Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain
Dmitri Barsouk/Nikita Liamin of Russia
Edward Seidu Ajanako/Jonathan Scott Sarpong of Ghana

Pool H at The Hague
Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany
Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk of Canada
Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson of France
Grant Goldschmidt/Leo Williams of South Africa

Pool I at The Hague
Tri Bourne/John Hyden of the United States
Philip Gabathuler/Mirco Gerson of Switzerland
Eric Haddock/Roberto Rodríguez-Bertrán of Puerto Rico
Wild Card of The Netherlands

Pool J at Amsterdam
Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia
Theo Brunner/Nick Lucena of the United States
Alexey Kuleshov/Dmitriy Yakovlev of Kazakhstan
Wessel Keemink/Sven Vismans of The Netherlands

Pool K at Apeldoorn
Álvaro Filho/Vitor Gonçalves Felipe of Brazil
Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson of United States
Christian Garcia/Francisco Alfredo Marco of Spain
Julian Amado Azaad/ Pablo Bianchi of Argentina

Pool L at Rotterdam
Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Salgado of Brazil
Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif of Germany
Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen of Mexico
Choaib Belhaj Salah/Mohamed Naceur of Tunisia