Lausanne, Switzerland, February 23, 2012 – The dates for the FIVB SWATCH Youth and Junior Beach Volleyball World Championships have now changed after the Main Draw for both tournaments was increased to 32 teams.
The SWATCH Youth World Championships, set to take place in Larnaka, Cyprus for the first time in the tournament’s history, will now be a day shorter, running from July 11 to 14 while the SWATCH Junior World Championships, hosted by Halifax, Canada for the second year in a row, will also begin a day later from August 29 to September 2.
Both competitions will be one day shorter than in previous years after the FIVB Beach Volleyball Commission decided that there will be no qualification tournament after the Main Draw was increased to include 32 teams. Each confederation has a quota of six teams per gender and will stage their own qualification process to determine these. The additional two places will be filled by the host country. This joint effort from the FIVB and the five confederations will help develop the next generation of beach volleyball stars worldwide.