Prague, Czech Republic, May 19, 2015 - Women’s Beach Volleyball pairs from Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Thailand and the United States won country quota playoff matches here Tuesday to help set the field for the qualification tournament for this week’s FIVB World Tour.
The US$75,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Prague Open 2015 continues Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. (local time) with the 24-match, 32-team qualification tournament as the women’s international event returns to the Czech Republic capital for the second-straight season with the competition being held on the sands of Stvanice Stadium.
TUESDAY’S TRIUMPHS
Winning country quota matches Tuesday to advance to Wednesday’s rounds were Kacie MacTavish/Caleigh Whitaker of Canada, Eliska Galova/Sarka Nakladalova of the Czech Republic, Teresa Mersmann/Isabel Schneider of Germany, Ayumi Kusano/Shinako Tanaka of Japan, Khanittha Hongpak/Rumpaipruet Numwong of Thailand, and Irene Hester Pollock/Caitlin Ledoux of the United States.
Galova and Nakladalova had to win two matches to earn a spot in the qualifier. In their second match Tuesday, Galova and Nakladalova posted a 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-9) victory in 47 minutes over Magdalena Dostalova and Karolina Rehackova.
CZECH REPUBLIC QUALIFYING ENTRIES
With Gálová and Nakladalova advancing from Tuesday’s playoffs, the Czech Republic will have two pairs in Wednesday’s qualifier as the host country seeks to place four teams in the Prague Open Main Draw. Also competing in Wednesday’s preliminary rounds are Martina Jakubsova and Diana Zolnercikova. Czech Republic teams already set for the “money” rounds starting Thursday are Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, Martina Bonnerová/Barbora Hermannová and Sona Novakova Dosoudilova/Lenka Hajeckova.
AFTER QUALIFYING WEDNESDAY
With the final eight spots for the 32-team Prague Open Main Draw being determined Wednesday, the “money” rounds start at 10 a.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday where both pool play and elimination matches will be played.
SUNDAY’S SERVICE
The Prague Open concludes Sunday with the playing of the semi-final and medal matches. The semi-finals will be played at 11 a.m. followed by the third-place match at 3 p.m. and the gold medal finale at 4 p.m. The winning team will share the $11,000 first-place prize with $8,000 for second, $6,000 for third and $4,500 for fourth-place.
OLYMPIANS 2014 PRAGUE OPEN CHAMPIONS
Kolocova and Slukova are the defending Prague Open champions after the Czech Republic Olympians delighted the host country fans by winning the country’s first-ever FIVB World Tour gold medal by capturing the three-set finale over Germans Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler. Both tandems are entered in the competition this week.
OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
This week’s stop is the third women’s qualifying event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Prague Open entrants Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas of Canada have netted gold (Fuzhou, China) and bronze (Lucerne, Switzerland) medals in the first two events this season to lead the provisional Rio rankings with 900 points. The winning team this week earns 500 Olympic qualifying points with second garnering 450, third securing 400 points and fourth gathering 350 points.
MOSCOW NEXT
The FIVB World Tour resumes men’s and women’s competition next week with the Moscow Grand Slam (May 25-31). The FIVB World Tour’s first “Major Series” stops are set for Croatia (Poreč, June 1-7) and Norway (Stavanger, June 8-14) before international circuit crosses the Atlantic for the final world championship “tune up” in the United States for the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida (June 15-21). The 2015 FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships will be played at four sites in The Netherlands starting June 26 with the final matches scheduled for July 5 in The Hague.