Lausanne, Switzerland, June 25, 2018 - The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour returns to Poland for the 15th-straight season this week as Warsaw hosts a double gender event for the first time where 134 men’s and women’s teams from 37 countries have entered the capital city competition.
The $300,000 Warsaw Open is the 29th men’s and the 28th women’s event on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour calendar. Poland has hosted 31 previous FIVB Beach Volleyball events, including two women’s-only Open events in Warsaw during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Country quota action opens play Tuesday at Warsaw’s Monta Beach Volleyball Club for both genders followed by qualifying Wednesday where eight men’s and eight women’s pairs will advance to the Main Draw pool play rounds starting Thursday.
The centre court at the Monta Beach Volleyball Club for the 2018 Warsaw Open.
The Warsaw Open quarter- and semifinal matches are scheduled for Saturday to set the field for the medal contests to be played Sunday. The winning pairs will split the $20,000 first-place prizes as Warsaw hosts the seventh of 10 four-star events on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour calendar.
The host country will be looking for its first-ever gold medal finish on home sand after claiming a men’s silver medal in 2011 at Stare Jablonki by Gregorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel and a women’s third-place finish in 2015 at Olsztyn by Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska.
The Monta Beach Volleyball Club for the 2018 Warsaw Open.
In FIVB action this past weekend, women’s pairs from the Czech Republic and Japan and men’s tandems from Brazil, China and Spain topped podiums at World Tour events in Singapore, Turkey and the Czech Republic where $360,000 was awarded.
At the Ostrava Open in the Czech Republic, the home country’s Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova defeated Canada’s Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson for the women’s gold medal with Spain’s Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera out-lasting Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland for the men’s title. While the Spaniards were winning their third FIVB gold medal together, Hermannova and Slukova were topping a World Tour podium together for the second time.
China’s Pen Gao/Yang Li each won their first FIVB World Tour gold by defeating Kusti Nolvak/Mart Tiisaar of Estonia in the Singapore Open finals. In the women’s competition, Reika Murakami/Chiyo Suzuki also won their first FIVB World Tour gold medals by defeating Ayumi Kusano/Takemi Nishibori in the all-Japanese gold medal match.
In the Manavgat Open in Turkey, Brazil’s Oscar Brandao/Luciano Ferreira captured the men’s gold medal by defeating Kristoffer Abell/Daniel Thomsen of Denmark, 2-0 (21-14, 23-21) in 44 minutes. It’s the second career FIVB World Tour title for each player. In the women’s competition, Satono/Ishitsubo/Asami Shiba of Japan each won their first FIVB World Tour gold medals by defeating Belgium’s Sarah Cools/Lisa Van Den Vonder in the finale.
Turkey - Manavgat, June 20-23, 2018, $5,000, FIVB Women's event No. 357
1. Satono Ishitsubo/Asami Shiba, Japan, $1,000
2. Sarah Cools/Lisa Van Den Vonder, Belgium, $700
3. Merve Nezir/Aleyna Vence, Turkey, $500
4. Erika Habaguchi/Yurika Sakaguchi, Japan, $400
Gold - Ishitsubo/Shiba def. Cools/Van Den Vonder, 2-1 (17-21, 21-13, 21-19) (60 minutes)
Bronze - Nezir/Vence def. Habaguchi/Sakaguchi, 2-1 (9-21, 21-16, 15-12) (48)
Turkey - Manavgat, June 20-23, 2018, $5,000, FIVB Men's event No. 393
1. Oscar Brandao/Luciano Ferreira de Paula, Brazil, $1,000
2. Kristoffer Abell/Daniel Thomsen, Denmark, $700
3. Jannes van der Ham/Sven Vismans, Netherlands, $500
4. Alejandro Huerta/Javier Huerta, Spain, $400
Gold – Oscar/Luciano def. Abell/Thomson, 2-0 (21-14, 23-21) (44 minutes)
Bronze - van der Ham/Vismans def. Huertas, 2-1 (14-21, 21-16, 15-11) (53)
Singapore - Sentosa, June 21-24, 2018, $25,000, FIVB Women's event No. 358
1. Reika Murakami/Chiyo Suzuki, Japan, $4,000
2. Ayumi Kusano/Takemi Nishibori, Japan, $3,000
3. Anna Behlen/Sarah Schneider, Germany, $2,000
4. Sigrid Simonsson/Tadva Yoken, Sweden, $1,400
Gold - Murakami/Suzuki def. Kusano/Nishibori, 2-0 (23-21, 21-15) (40)
Bronze - Behlen/Schneider def. Simonsson/Yoken, 2-1 (27-25, 13-21, 15-11) (57)
Singapore - Sentosa, June 21-24, 2018, $25,000, FIVB Men's event No. 394
1. Peng Gao/Yang Li, China, $4,000
2. Kusti Nolvak/Mart Tiisaar, Estonia, $3, 000
3. Mohammad Ashfiya/Candra Rachmawan, Indonesia, $2,000
4. Jan Pokersnik/Nejc Zemljak, Slovenia, $1,400
Gold - Gao/Li def. Nolvak/Tiisaar, 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) (36)
Bronze - Ashfiya/Rachmawan def. Pokersnik/Zemljak, 2-0 (28-26, 22-20) (49)
Czech Republic - Ostrava, June 20-25, 2018, $150,000, FIVB Women's event No. 359
1. Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic, $20,000
2. Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson, Canada, $16,000
3. Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch, Germany, $10,000
4. Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider, Germany, $8,000
Gold - Hermannova/Slukova vs. Bansley/Wilkerson 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-13) (54)
Bronze - Borger/Kozuch def. Bieneck/Schneider, 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) (41)
Czech Republic - Ostrava, June 20-25, 2018, $150,000, FIVB Women's event No. 395
1. Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira, Spain, $20,000
2. Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Poland, $16,000
3. Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov, Russia, $10,000
4. Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner, Czech Republic, $8,000
Gold - Kantor/Losiak vs. Herrera/Gavira, 2-1 (27-25, 25-32, 25-22) (51)
Bronze - Semenov/Leshukov def. Perusic/Schweiner, 2-1 (14-21, 21-18, 26-24) (62)