Inside Volley Board

Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2012 schedule:

16-22 April
Brasilia (Brazil), Open

24-29 April
Myslowice (Poland), Open

30 April - 6 May
Shanghai (China), Grand Slam

7-13 May
Beijing (China), Grand Slam

22-27 May
Prague (Czech Republic), Open

6-12 June
Moscow (Russia), Grand Slam

12-17 June
Rome (Italy), Grand Slam

2-8 July
Gstaad (Switzerland), Grand Slam

10-15 July
Berlin (Germany), Grand Slam

16-22 July
Klagenfurt (Austria), Grand Slam

28 July - August 9
London (Great Britain), Olympic Games

13-19 August
Stare Jablonki (Poland), Grand Slam

2-7 October
Agadir (Morocco), Open

Lausanne, Switzerland, January 18, 2012 – Brasilia will be the starting point for the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour for the third year in a row from April 16 to 22 after the Brazilian capital was confirmed as the host of the first stage of the 2012 circuit on Wednesday.

The city has hosted a men’s event since 2009 and a women’s competition since 2010 with USA’s Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser and home duo Juliana Felisberta da Silva and Lariss França picking up the gold medals at last year’s tournament.

Brazil has staged a FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour event every year since the start of the international circuit for men in 1987 and for women in 1992.

The 2012 Tour will feature a total of 14 events in 15 countries over a seven-month period, including a record-breaking nine Grand Slam tournaments, increasing from six in 2011.

There will also be eight Open events, six of which will be single-gender competitions.

With total prize money of $7.3 million on offer, the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour 2012 will include Grand Slams offering $600,000 prize money in Beijing, Moscow, Rome, Stavanger, Gstaad, Klagenfurt, Stare Jablonki as well as Shanghai, which has been upgraded from an Open, event and Berlin which may return to the calendar for the first time since 2008. The latter event will be confirmed in the near future.


Source: FIVB

Brazilian beach volleyball star Pedro Salgado was suspended for an alleged positive drug test last summer. As it turns out, the test was botched informed volleyball.about.com.
Now the lab that conducted the test is itself under suspension. Turnabout is indeed fair play, but the lab’s suspension pales in comparison to what could be long-lasting effects on Salgado’s career.

The facts are these: Salgado provided an out-of-competition sample to the lab on May 30th of last year. The FIVB was informed on July 8th that the sample contained a banned substance called androstane. Salgado was suspended from playing on the FIVB Tour for about a month but was re-instated when there was a delay in testing the second sample for confirmation. On August 12th, the lab reported that the “B” sample had also come back positive .

Fortunately for Salgado, the documentation that the lab included in their findings revealed some “analytical issues” that prompted the FIVB to request additional testing at a different lab. The sample was sent to Cologne, Germany for re-testing and on October 21st the German lab issued a report that the sample was clean.

Salgado was immediately cleared of the charges and now the Brazilian lab that conducted the botched test is in the same hot water it put Pedro in just months before. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended the lab for six months.

Looking over the facts here, some obvious questions arise. First, why did it take five weeks for the lab to report the positive test to the FIVB? Second, why did it take the lab so long to test the second sample? Third, how bad must the documentation have been for the FIVB to realize immediately that this lab was incompetent at best?

The scary part is that this Brazilian lab is the country’s only accredited testing facility. The suspension is only partial in nature. The lab will still be receiving samples to test throughout its suspension, though it is not authorized to use the type of test that failed on Salgado's sample. After this fiasco, how can anyone trust any test this lab performs no matter what method is used? This lab should have to face the same credibility issues that Salgado had to face as he proclaimed his innocence to mostly deaf ears. At the very least, any objections to this lab’s findings from now on will have instantaneous merit.

Considering the circumstances, it does not seem inappropriate that the lab be shut down altogether. Producing false positive tests on both A and B samples is a big deal. Salgado is a young, up-and-coming likely superstar. This could have ruined his career. Fortunately it did not, but the effects of the false positive test will reverberate for a long time. Salgado has had his name dragged through the mud, his reputation sullied and a new partnership thwarted.

During his suspension, Salgado traveled to the U.S. to play in the Hermosa Beach Open with American Casey Jennings. The two ended up winning the thing. But some fans were uncomfortable with USAV’s decision to let Salgado play despite the FIVB suspension. Having seen this scenario unfold many times before, fans were understandably skeptical of Salgado’s innocence. How many times have we watched it? The test comes back positive, the athlete claims ignorance and/or innocence for a while and then is forced to concede that he did indeed take performance enhancing drugs. Once these labs submit the positive results the court of public opinion gets roaring.

Add to that the fact that at the time of the false positive, Salgado’s partner Pedro Cunha was injured and Salgado was just about to join forces with Ricardo, one of the best Brazilian beach players who had recently ended a successful partnership with Marcio-Araujo.

With Salgado ineligible, Ricardo instead picked up Cunha, who just happened to heal up in time to play in the remaining tournaments. Together Cunha/Ricardo won two FIVB events in Klaagenfurt, Austria and City of the Hague, Netherlands.

Salgado returned to the tour with Rhooney Ferramenta, finishing 9th in the Netherlands and placing third at the last event in Morocco. Not a bad take considering the drama he went through. But the chance to play with Ricardo may have passed him by and with it, his chances at the Olympics. The Brazilian Federation can still step in and place Salgado with Ricardo in the run up to London, or he can qualify with another partner but of course nothing is assured.

The Brazilian lab that botched the test will need to get its act together soon because it is expected to be responsible for drug testing in two huge upcoming events – the 2014 World Cup (soccer) and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. By then, this lab will probably have changed its name and started over with a clean slate. Salgado doesn’t have that option.

The stories about the positive test are many and they will live forever on the web. One can’t Google his name without pulling them up. Some will look deeper and find the news that the test was a false positive. Some won’t. And there is nothing anyone can do about that.
source: volleyball.about.com

Lausanne, Switzerland, March 9, 2012 – Norway promotor World Event regrets to announce on Friday that the Stavanger Grand Slam will not take place in 2012 citing the financial crisis.
The Stavanger Grand Slam, which was due to take place from June 25 to July 1, has been part of the FIVB SWATCH World Tour since 1999 in the iconic venue of the Vaagen Harbour dockside courts starting as an Open event before becoming a Grand Slam in 2004 highlighted by the 2009 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships.
“It has been a great pleasure working with the organization in Stavanger, and see how this fantastic tournament turned into one of the biggest sports event in Norway,” World Event managing director and chairman Odd Langhelle and board director Bjorn Maaseide said. “The World Tour in Stavanger has been a first class and complex beach volleyball event with a budget of approx. three million Euros. The financial risk for this year's tournament was simply too high.”
The ConocoPhillips Grand Slam tournament in Stavanger reached its peak during the FIVB SWATCH World Championships in 2009 where 156 million television viewers watched the event across the country. The FIVB gave the World Championships in Stavanger the title "best World Championships ever". A total of 101,000 tickets were sold during the 10 day competition.
Mr Maaseide is a former star on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour and a key promotor who in both roles has tremendously contributed to beach volleyball both in Norway and around the world.
The 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour will now feature a total of 13 events in 14 countries over a seven-month period, including a record-breaking eight Grand Slam tournaments, increasing from six in 2011.
There will also be eight Open events, six of which will be single-gender competitions. Discussions with the promotor of the Morocco Men’s Open is still ongoing leaving the tournament still to be confirmed.
With total prize money of $6.7 million on offer, the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour 2012 will include Grand Slams offering $600,000 prize money in Beijing, Moscow, Rome, Gstaad, Klagenfurt, Stare Jablonki as well as Shanghai, which has been upgraded from an Open event and Berlin which returns to the calendar for the first time since 2008.
The 16 places per gender that will qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games directly from the World Tour will be decided following the Rome Grand Slam from June 12 to 17. The national federations with the 12 best results from the World Championships, World Tour and recognized Continental Tours from January 1, 2011 up until June 17 will automatically earn a berth at the Olympic Games. They will be joined by hosts Great Britain, the five Beach Volleyball Continental Cup champions and the top two place getters at the World Cup Olympic Qualification in Tortoli, Italy to make up the 24 vacancies.

Source: FIVB

It is quite unfortuante what is happening in Stavanger - the city to organize one of the best events in the whole calendar. I hope they will come back again on the map in 2013!

Moscow, Russia, February 29, 2012 – Russian beach volleyball star Konstantin Semenov has set his sights on a medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Moscow Grand Slam and a berth to the London 2012 Olympic Games ahead of the start of the season.

The 22-year-old clinched his first SWATCH World Tour medal at the Hague Open in the Netherlands last year alongside partner Yaroslav Koshkarev and has been training hard to add to that on the 2012 circuit.

“The mood is good and I'm looking forward to the start of the season,” he said. “I’m a little bit tired from the practice, but me and Yaroslav understand – we are founding a base for the upcoming year. That's why we try to approach the requirements of our coach with seriousness.”

It will be Semenov’s second full season on the Tour, although he did compete at the Sanya Open in 2009, and his experience so far makes him confident of his target this year, which include impressing his home fans.

“Our objectives for the season? To qualify for the Olympic Games in London and take a medal at home at the [Moscow] Grand Slam,” he added. “Of course, this does not mean that the remaining stages of the World Tour are not important for us. However, we want to perform at home particularly well.”

Moscow is the penultimate event which will count towards qualification for the London 2012 Olympic Games, with just the Rome Grand Slam a week later helping to determine the top 16 teams that will automatically move on to Horse Guards Parade.

Source: FIVB

Quoted from "volleystella"

Is it known already which TV Channels will broadcast the Swatch-FIVB World Tour this year? Is there any chance we can see matches on eurosport or any main sport channel? It would be great!

For the time being we should only depend on laola1, it's been ages since Eurosport last showed anything live on TV. Hopefully, only during the Olympic tournament things might change a bit, but I don't know about the World Tour.

Lausanne, Switzerland, March 22, 2012 – The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is pleased to announce that the the Netherlands Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) has been appointed as host of the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Nevobo was confirmed as host of the 10th edition of the FIVB’s premier beach volleyball event by the FIVB Board of Administration at its meeting earlier this week after a year-long bidding process which involved up to five countries.



The 2015 FIVB SWATCH Beach Volleyball World Championships, tentatively scheduled for June/July, will be held in four Dutch cities - The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and one city to be confirmed - for the first time in the tournament’s history. But equally as important is the development initiative surrounding the bid with schools, local authorities and clubs also involved.

“The bid from the Netherlands Volleyball Federation was very impressive with innovation and a keen focus on development the key behind ensuring the continued success of the FIVB’s leading beach volleyball event,” FIVB Beach Volleyball Commission president Dr Ary Graça said. "Following last year’s superb World Championships in Rome, we are looking forward to a trifecta of top class editions with Poland in 2013 and now Netherlands in place on the eve of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.”

"I am very happy and proud that the World Championships of 2015 are appointed to us,” Nevobo Sports managing director Michel Everaert said. "Composing our bid, we have thankfully used the knowledge and experience of our organisation and other sport federations in our country.”

“It is the first time that a FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be a country event and not only a city event,” FIVB Beach Volleyball Department director Angelo Squeo said. “The FIVB and the organisers are determined to implement a very unique event to combine top class competition with a powerful development program and transfer of knowledge to all national federations.”

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are a highlight on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour. Having started as a men’s only event from 1987 to 1991, the first edition in its current double-gender format was in 1997 and since then has become the most prestigious beach volleyball event, held every two years, outside of the Olympic Games.

The most recent edition was held in Rome in 2011 with Brazil’s Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti, and Larissa Fraça and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva topping both the men’s and women’s podium respectively. Poland’s Stare Jablonki will host the next edition in August, 2013.

Although The Hague, which had been a regular stop as an Open event on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour since 2009, won’t appear in 2012 because it is part of the European calendar, it does plan to rejoin the tour as a Grand Slam in 2014 and 2016.

Source: FIVB

Quebec, Canada, April 3, 2012 – The FIVB regrets to announce that the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Quebec Open, set to take place in the Canadian city from August 21 to 26 has been cancelled.

The promoters cited financial limitations as the reason behind the withdrawal from the circuit, despite the FIVB’s best efforts to eradicate any concerns.

Quebec was included on the SWATCH World Tour for the first time last year with the l’Externat St-Jean Berchmans and Seminaire des Peres Maristes in the Quebec borough of Sillery forming the backdrop.

The organising committee and promoters said they would like to thank the FIVB and everyone that supported the 2011 event.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour calendar page has now been updated to reflect this latest change.

Source: FIVB

Quoted from "volleystella"

Is there any source where I can find the specific program for each day, and which team gonna play against which team at what time? As on the FIVB's website I just see the teams and link for the results but nothing about the draw. Any info? Or they will be up just on that day?

CarduCat is right, there is nothing out until the very last day before the tournament starts. Of course, country quota games are the first ones to be played and scheduled, but usually they release the schedule the day before they start. I even think these draws are decided right on the spot and this is the reason for the last minute announcement. So you will just have to be patient