Lausanne, Switzerland, November 27, 2017 - After presenting another double-gender tournament, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has completed the 2017 portion of its 2017-2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour with the men’s fourth event and the women’s third. Last week, the 2018 FIVB World Tour held a double-gender event in Sydney, Australia. The 2018 FIVB World Tour schedule will resume the first week of January in The Hague, Netherlands.
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Winning the men’s gold medal last week on Manly Beach with an unbeaten 6-0 match record was Canada’s second-seeded Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton who defeated France’s Quincy Aye/Youssef Krou in straight sets, 2-0 (21-8, 21-16) in just 30 total minutes.
It was the first career FIVB World Tour gold medal for Canada’s O’Gorman/Saxton as a team and individually. The Canadian duo was playing their first FIVB World Tour event as a team.
Earning the men’s bronze medal in Sydney was the United States’ 10th-seeded Miles Evans/Billy Kolinske who held off Australia’s top-seeded Christopher McHugh/Damien Schumann in three sets, 2-1 (21-16, 13-21, 15-11) in 46 minutes.
In the FIVB Sydney 2-Star men’s semifinals, Canada’s O’Gorman/Saxton advanced to the gold medal match by coming back to fight off USA’s Evans/Kolinski in three sets, 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-9) in 53 minutes and France’s Aye/Krou advanced by coming back to beat Australia’s McHugh/Schumann in three sets 2-1 (14-21, 21-14, 15-13) in 49 minutes.
Canada’s Grant O’Gorman was selected as the men’s Most Outstanding Player of the FIVB Sydney 2-Star.
Canada's Grant O'Gorman, right, serves the Mikasa as Ben Saxton is ready for action as the Canadian duo won their first FIVB World Tour gold medal last week in Sydney.
Sydney - Women
Winning the women’s gold medal last week at FIVB Sydney-Star with a sterling unbeaten 6-0 match record was Australia’s top-seeded host-country nation’s duo Mariafe Artacho del Solar/Taliqua Clancy who stopped China’s second-seeded Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia in impressive straight sets , 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) in 32 minutes.
It was the second career FIVB World Tour gold medal for Australia’s Artacho del Solar/Clancy as a team and individually. Playing in just their third FIVB World Tour event as a team in Sydney, the Australian duo won their first gold medal in Qinzhou, China in October. The China event was the first women’s event on the 2018 FIVB World Tour.
Earning the women’s bronze medal in Sydney was Austria’s sixth-seeded Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schutzenhofer who came back and fought off Japan’s 15th-seeded Azusa Futami/Akiko Hasegawa in three sets, 2-1 (16-21, 24-22, 15-10) in a 53-minute struggle.
In the FIVB Sydney 2-Star women’s semifinals, Australia’s Artacho del Solar/Clancy advanced to the gold medal match by overpowering Austria’s Plesiutschnig/Schutzenhofer in straight sets, 2-0 (21-10, 21-6) in just 26 minutes and China’sWang/Xia advanced by defeating Japan’s Futami/Hasegawa in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) in 33 minutes.
Australia’s Mariafe Artacho was selected as the women’s Most Outstanding Player of the FIVB Sydney 2-Star tournament.
Helping her team win gold on home-country sand, Australia's Mariafe Artacho del Solar was selected the women's Most Outstanding Player last week in Sydney.
FIVB World Ranking system
Part of the current edition of the FIVB Sports Regulations for beach volleyball published in early 2017, the FIVB World Ranking system has been established based on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Ranking Points earned at the eight best performances as a team in all FIVB sanctioned or homologated Beach Volleyball Events over a 365-days period. The FIVB World Ranking is updated every Monday after an FIVB sanctioned or homologated event granting FIVB Beach Volleyball Ranking Points.
Men's World Rankings
Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola leads this week’s FIVB World Rankings with 4,180 points, second is Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai with 3,920 points, third is Russia’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Nikita Liamin with 3,900 points, fourth is USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena with 3,840 points and fifth is Brazil’s Saymon Barbosa/Alvaro Filho with 3,760 points.
Sixth is Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak with 3,740 points, seventh is Brazil’s Olympic champions Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt with 3,340 points, eighth is Austria’s Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst with 3,156 points, ninth is Brazil’s Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes/Pedro Solberg with 3,100 points, 10th is Spain’s Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera with 2,800 points, 11th is Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle with 2,572 points, 12th is Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin with 2,560 points, 13th is USA’s Ryan Doherty/John Hyden with 2,480 points, 14th is Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen with 2,460 points and 15th is Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins with 2,440 points.
Men's earnings
In the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour men’s earnings after four events, Russia’s Maxim Sivolap/Igor Velichko leads with $8,000 in one event with one gold medal, second is France’s Quincy Aye/Youssef Krou with $7,100 in three events, third is Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen with $ 6,000 in one event, fourth is Cuba’s Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez with $5,000 in one event, fifth is Serbia’s Djordje Klasnic/Lazar Kolaric with $4,100 in four events, sixth is Canada’s Grand O’Gorman/Ben Saxton with $4,000 in one event, seventh is Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle with $3,600 in one event, eighth is United States’ Miles Evans/Billy Kolinske with $3,500 in two events, ninth is Netherlands’ Dirk Boehle/Steven van de Velde, with $3,400 in two events, and 10th is Australia’s Cole Durant/Zachery Schubert with $3,100 in two events.
Men's final fours
After four men’s tournaments on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour, 14 countries have at least one final four placement. Tied for first with two final four placements each are France (one silver medal, one bronze medal) and the United States (one silver medal, one bronze medal). Tied for third with one final four placement each are Australia (one fourth place finish), Belgium (one fourth place finish), Canada (one gold medal), Cuba (one bronze medal), Czech Republic (one silver medal), Italy (one gold medal), Mexico (one silver medal), Russia (one gold medal), Serbia (one fourth place finish), Slovenia (one gold medal), Turkey (one bronze medal) and Ukraine (one fourth place finish).
Men's winning percentage
Based on winning percentage, after four men’s events on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour with a minimum of four matches played, tri-leaders at 100.0 per cent are Canada’s Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton (6-0), Russia’s Maxim Sivolap/Igor Velichko (5-0) and Slovenia’s Jan Pokersnik/Nejc Zemljak (4-0). Fourth at 81.8 per cent is United States’ Miles Evans/Billy Kolinski (9-2) and tied for fifth at 80.0 per cent each are Cuba’s Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez (4-1), Italy’s Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi (4-1), Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen (4-1) and New Zealand’s Rene Kapa/Morgan Seymour (4-1). Tied for ninth at 75.0 per cent are Australia’s Paul Burnett/Joshua Court (3-1) and Russia’s Ruslan Bykanov/Maksim Hudyakov (3-1).
Men's match wins
Tied with nine match wins each on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour standings after four events are France’s Quincy Aye/Youssef Krou (9-4) and United States’ Miles Evans/Billy Kolinske (9-2). Third with seven wins is Serbia’s Djordje Klasnic/Lazar Kolaric (7-5), fourth with six wins is Canada’s Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton (6-0) and tied for fifth with five wins each are Russia’s Maxim Sivolap/Igor Velichko (5-0) and Netherlands’ Ruben Penninga/Tom van Seenis (5-3).
Women's rankings
Brazil’s Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca duo continues at the top of the current women’s FIVB World Rankings with 5,560 points, second is Canada’s Melissa Humana-Parades/Sarah Pavan with 4,480 points, third is Germany’s Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude with 4,240 points, fourth is Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa with 4,000 points and fifth is Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova with 3,360 points.
Sixth is Brazil’s Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas with 3,180 points, seventh is USA’s Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat with 3,060 points, tied for eighth with 2,940 points each are Czech Republic’s Kristyna Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova and Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre, 10th is Australia’s Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy with 2,616 points, 11th is Canada’s Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson with 2,600 points, 12th is Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst with 2,544 points, 13th is Switzerland’s Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli with 2,412 points, 14th is Germany’s Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider with 2,060 points and 15th is Germany’s Nadja Glenzke/Julia Grossner with 1,990 points.
Women's earnings
In the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour women’s earnings after three events, Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy leads with $12,000 in two events with two gold medals, second is China’s Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia with $6,600 in two events, third is Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek/Kinga Kolosinska with $6,000 in one event, fourth is Germany’s Kim Behrens/Sandra Ittlinger with $5,400 in three events and fifth is USA’s Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat with $5,000 in one event.
Women's final fours
After three women’s tournament on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour, nine countries had at least one final four placement. Tied for first with two final four placements each are Australia (two gold medals), China (one silver medal, one fourth place finish), Japan (two fourth place finishes) and the United States (two bronze medals). Tied for fifth with one final four placement each are: Austria (one bronze medal), Germany (one silver medal), Netherlands’ (one gold medal) and Poland (one silver medal).
Women's winning percentage
Based on winning percentage after three women’s events on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour with a minimum of three matches played, 2018 co-leaders at 100.0 per cent are Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy (11-0) and Netherlands’ Madelein Meppelink/Joy Stubbe (4-0), tied for third at 80.0 per cent each are United States’ Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat (4-1) and Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek/Kinga Kolosinska (4-1) and fifth at 75.0 per cent is Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schutzenhofer (6-2).
Women's match wins
With 11 match wins on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour standings after three women’s events leading is Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy (11-0) while second with eight match wins is China’s Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia (8-3), third with seven wins is Germany’s Kim Behrens/Sandra Ittinger (7-4), fourth with six wins is Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schutzenhofer (6-2) , and tied for fifth with five wins each are United States’ Betsi Flint/Kelley Larsen (5-2), and Japan’s Azusa Futami/Akiko hasegawa (5-3).
On the horizon
After four events on the 2017 portion of the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour, competition resumes from January 3 to 7 in the Netherlands with the double-gender 4-Star DELA Beach Open in The Hague, and from February 1-4 in Australia with the double-gender FIVB Shepparton 1-Star event.
Growing history
The event in The Hague will be the 372nd men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 336th women’s tournament since the FIVB launched women’s competition started in 1992.