Vienna, Austria, July 30, 2017 - Over two years ago in The Hague, Reinder Nummerdor was playing in his fifth FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and finishing with a silver medal after he and Dutch partner Christiaan Varenhorst dropped the title match to Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in three sets.
Now, the 40-year old Nummerdor is watching the “live streaming” of the of the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1 at home with his year-old baby daughter while his wife Manon is competing with Marleen van Iersel in Pool G where the Dutch pair posted a win here Sunday over a higher-seeded team from China.
“We’ve been struggling,” said Manon Nummerdor following her team’s 2-1 (22-20, 19-21, 15-12) win in 52 minutes over 18th-seeded Chinese Olympians Fan Wang/Yuan Yue. “We’re a new team and we’re looking for victories and there’s progression but we’re not always getting results how we want them. To have this in the World Championships against a good team like China is great.”
Seeded 42nd in in the worlds, Nummerdor and van Iersel had lost their last six FIVB World Tour matches heading into Sunday’s Pool G match as the Dutch pair had failed to qualify for the Main Draws at the last two international events in Switzerland and Poland.
With a 1-1 group record after losing 2-0 (21-13, 23-21) to seventh-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan in their opening match Friday, Nummerdor and van Iersel bid for a spot the Vienna elimination bracket needing a win over 31st-seeded Marta Menegatti and Diane Perry of Italy Monday to secure the second position in Pool G.
The US$1-million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1 will feature 28 pool play matches on three courts Monday at the state-of-the art venue at Donauinsel with the focal point of the action and entertainment being held with a picturesque view of the Danube River and the lively atmosphere of the Beach Village.
A total of 216-matches will be played over a 10-day period at the world championships where the winning men’s and women’s teams will each split the $60,000 first-place prizes. The women’s medal matches will be played August 5 and the men’s August 6. With 96 teams from 40 countries in the competition, pool play highlights the first six days of play with the featured court being the 10,000-seat Red Bull Beach Arena.
