Women’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops at Sanya in October 2010

Simone Kuhn (left) and Nadine Zumkehr celebrate Switzerland’s

 first-ever women’s gold medal on the SWATCH FIVB World

Tour at the 2009 Sanya Open

After hosting double gender events the past two seasons on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, the Chinese resort city of Sanya will host the next-to-last women’s stop on the international Beach Volleyball calendar 2010 October 26-31.

Following the $US190,000 event at the training site for the Chinese national Beach Volleyball team, the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour for women concludes their competition calendar the next week on Karon Beach at the Thailand resort city of Phuket November 2-7.

Renowned for its tropical climate, Sanya is the second Chinese site on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour as Shanghai will be hosting an international event for a seventh-straight season May 3-9 in the Jinshan District where both men and women will be competing.

The 2009 Sanya women’s event was highlighted by the first-ever gold medal finish by a women’s team from Switzerland on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour as Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr upset 2009 world champions Jen Kessy and April Ross of the United States 17-21, 22-20 and 15-13 in the 60-minute finale.  Kessy and Ross won the inaugural Sanya event in 2008 by defeating a team from China in the finals.

The Swiss pair had to win three elimination matches to reach the semi-finals where Kuhn and Zumkehr defeated Italy’s Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti 21-18, 16-21 and 20-18 in 60 minutes to the gold medal match.  Cicolari and Menegatti were the first Italian women’s team to compete in a SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four” since 2001.

With the 2010 calendar featuring 15 women’s and 14 men’s events within the Asian, European and South American confederations, the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour will offer $US6.82-million in prize money.  Twelve of the tournaments will be combined men’s and women’s events, including all six Grand Slam stops.

The other women’s-only stop in 2010 will be May 25-30 at Seoul, Korea.  After a year’s absence, the Czech Republic capital of Prague returns to the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar and will stage the second of two men’s-only events in June following the Polish stop in Myslowice in late May.

With Rome scheduled to host the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Championships, the Italian capital will be one of two new Grand Slam events on this year’s calendar along with Stare Jablonki, Poland.  Rome hosted its first FIVB event in 2009 with a men’s-only tournament.  Stare Jablonki started as a fixture on the international calendar in 2004 as a men’s-only event.  The last two editions in the Mazury region of Poland also featured women’s play in 2008 and 2009.

The $US2.4-million SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam series will also return to Austria (Klagenfurt), Norway (Stavanger), Russia (Moscow) and Switzerland (Gstaad).  Moscow will be staging its fifth SWATCH stop with the 2010 event being its third-year of Grand Slam competition.  The Russian capital hosted men’s-only events in 1998 and 1999 before joining the Grand Slam schedule in 2008.

Klagenfurt, Gstaad and Stavanger have each staged 10 or more FIVB-sanctioned Beach Volleyball events.  All three sites have previously hosted the SWATCH FIVB World Championships with Klagenfurt in 2001, Gstaad in 2007 and Stavanger in 2009.  Klagenfurt joined the international schedule in 1997 with a men’s event with the women joining the Austrian competition schedule in 2001.  Stavanger hosted a men’s event in 1999 with women’s play starting in 2002.  Gstaad’s first SWATCH stop was a women’s event in 2000 with the men joining the competition format in the Swiss village the next year.

The opening event on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar will be a double gender event in Brasília April 19-25 as the Brazilian capital will be celebrating its 50th anniversary on the third day of competition.  During the April 21 Brasília celebration, crowds of more than 1-million will be attending various holiday activities around the SWATCH event.  Brazil has staged a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event every year since the start of the international circuit for men in 1987 and women in 1992.

China joins Norway and Poland in each staging two SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops in 2010.  Following a women’s event in 2004, Shanghai has staged double gender stops since 2005.  The Norwegian resort village of Kristiansand will be hosting a double gender event for the fourth-straight year.

Mariehamn in the Finnish islands of Åland and The Hague in The Netherlands are also on the 2010 calendar.  The two events will conclude the men’s international schedule in late August while the women’s competition will end in October and November with events in Sanya and Phuket, respectively.

The international Beach Volleyball calendar will also feature world championships for players under the age of 21.  Portugal will host the 2010 SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championships July 28-August 1 in Porto for players under the age of 19.  For the second-straight year, Turkey will host a world finale as Alanya will be the site September 15-19 for the 2010 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships for players under the age of 21.  The U19 world championships in 2009 were held in Alanya before England hosted the U21s in Blackpool.

IMG Sports Media will continue to have the exclusive distribution media rights for the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.  A new Mikasa ball, the VLS 300, will be used after being introduced last October and November at events in Sanya and Phuket.

2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar

SOURCE: www.fivb.org/en