Cochabamba, Bolivia hosts the South American Beach Volleyball Tour – Beach Volleyball

Bolivia provides the backdrop for a stop on beach volleyball’s South American Tour for the second week running this weekend. 

After last weekend’s stop in Sucre, this time the competition will be at the Olympic Club in the city of Cochabamba and will feature men’s and women’s pairs from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

On Friday, March 28, the competition will get under way with pool matches that will continue into Saturday. Saturday afternoon will see both the quarterfinals and semifinals.

The tournament will climax on Sunday with the gold- and bronze-medal matches for both men and women.

Brazil leads the ranking of beach volleyball in 2014 for men and women. In the men’s category, Chile is second and Venezuela third. In the women's category, Brazil is followed by Argentina in second and Chile in third place.

Competitors:

Women:

ARG 1 - ANA MARIA GALLAY / GEORGINA KLUG

ARG 2 - JULIETA PUNTÍN / VIRGINIA ZONTA

BOL 1 - TANIA ISMAEL / MARIA LUISA ORTIZ

BOL 2 - AMALIA CALVO / DANIELA ARNEZ

BOL 3 - MARXIA REYES / DIVA OROPEZA

BOL 4 - KATHERINE URIARTE / ALEJANDRA OSSIO

BOL 5 - FERNANDA MAIDA / ADRIANA VILLARROEL

BRA 1- FERNANDA BERTI ALVES / ELIZE MAIA SECOMANDI

BRA2 - CAROLINA HORTA MAXIMO / CLAUDINERE BENTO SABINO

CHI 1 - MARIA FRANCESCA RIVAS / MARIA PILAR MARDONES

CHI 2 - MARIA JOSEFINA VÉLEZ / NATALIA DEL CARMEN DEPASSIER

COL - ANDREA GALINDO / CLAUDIA GALINDO

PAR - MICHELLE VALIENTE / GABRIELA FILIPPO

PER - MICHELLE SERNA / DIANA TORRES

URU - LIA FORTUNATI / FLORENCIA ROTTI

VEN - NORISBETH AGUDO / GABRIELA BRITO

Men:

ARG 1 - JULIAN AZAAD / PABLO BIANCHI

ARG 2 - NICOLAS CAPOGROSSO / IAN MEHAMED

BOL 1 - ROLANDO ISMAEL / RODRIGO PEREZ

BOL 2 - ISRAEL MARTÍNEZ / SERGIO FRANCO

BOL 3 - MAURICIO HEREDIA / LUIS BARRON

BOL 4 - LUIS CARLOS GARCÍA / SERGIO HAZOU

BRA 1 - MARCIO HENRIQUE BARROSO ARAUJO / THIAGO SANTOS BARBOSA

BRA 2 - HEVALDO SABINO MOREIRA /BRUNO MARCELO LIMA DE PAULO

CHI 1 - MARCO GRIMALT / ESTEBAN GRIMILY

CHI 2 - CRISTOBAL MARTINEZ / GUILLERMO JIMENEZ

COL - JULIAN CARMONA / JUAN CAMILO GIL

PAR - ELIOTH FRUTOS / CARLOS PEREZ

PER - LUIS BRAMONT ARIAS / JIMY HEREDIA

URU - RENZO CAIRUS / NICOLÁS ZANOTTA

VEN 1 - JESUS VILLAFAÑE / JACKSON HENRIQUEZ

VEN 2 - RONALD FAYOLA / LEONARD COLINA

The gold goes to Brazil and Chile in Sucre - South American Beach Volleyball

The fifth stop of the South American Beach Volleyball Tour enjoyed quite of sunshine as Brazilians Amanda Maltez/ Erica Almeida and Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt managed to take away gold at the Garcilaso Sucre stadium.

Argentine’s Ana Gallay/ Georgina Klug settled for the women’s silver medal, whereas Brazilians Fabio Bastos/ Saymon Santos seized the men’s silver. The Colombian Galindo sisters, Andrea and Claudia, took home the women’s bronze while Jesus Villafañ/ Jackson Henriquez conquered the men’s.

Maltez/ Almeida, competing for the first time for Brazil, were not intimidated by the experience of Gallay and Klug, and ran out 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-12) winners after a solid game and an undefeated run in the tournament.

"I'm speechless!” Maltez exclaimed. “It was a tense game, but we won our first international title. Hopefully others will come.”

Marco and Esteban Grimalt, who won on the previous stop in Lima, looked strong against Brazilians Fabio Bastos/ Saymon Santos and ended convincing winners, 21-9, 21-14.
“We were able to impose our rhythm,” Esteban Grimalt. “We put pressure on Fabio and were able to prevail. We are very happy with this title.”

Andrea/ Claudia Galindo beat Venezuelans Gabriela Brito/ Norisbeth Agudo 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) for the bronze, while Jesus Villafañe/ Igor Hernandez of Venezuela overcame Uruguay’s Nicolas Zanota/ Renzo Cairus 21-13, 21-17 in the men’s section.

The competition continues next weekend in another Bolivian city, Cochabamba.

Classification

Women
1 – Brazil
2 – Argentina
3 – Colombia
4 – Venezuela
5-8 – Uruguay, Bolivia 1, Chile 1, Paraguay
9-16 – Argentina 2, Bolivia 5, Chile 2, Bolivia 6, Bolivia 2, Bolivia 3, Bolivia 4, Bolivia 7

Men
1 – Chile
2 – Brazil
3 – Venezuela
4 – Uruguay
5-8 – Venezuela 2, Argentina 1, Bolivia 2, Bolivia 1
9-16 – Chile 2, Paraguay, Bolivia 6, Argentina 2, Bolivia 5, Colombia, Bolivia 3, Bolivia 4

Portugal ready to kick start preparations for the 2014 FIVB World Championship European Qualification Round - Volleyball News

The Men's Volleyball Team of Portugal is ready to hit the first training session for the upcoming Qualification Round of 2014 FIVB World Championship, where Portugal will be joined by three other teams i.e. Serbia, Silvia, and Macedonia. The European Qualification round will last from January 3-5, 2014 and Serbia will provide the backdrop for the event. 

In the meanwhile, Portuguese team will start the training session on December 17. The squad will start preparation at the Povoa de Varzim Municipal Sports Hall. Quite recently, the
team coach Hugo Silva unveiled a 16-member squad that will go straight into their preparations for 3 consecutive friendly matches happening from December 28 to 30. Portugal will come into fight with Spain in their home city Madrid.

“At this point, the most important thing is to have all players available as soon as possible, as some of the international players are coming later, due to the scheduled matches of their respective teams,” Silva said.

“Then we must develop our strategy for each game, which will be built around our own strengths and characteristics. In order for this to work, it will be very important to work hard and to get every player playing at his best, especially the young ones.”

Beach Get Involved - News from Indonesia

The Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) recently joined hands with the Development Centre of Indonesia and organised a technical seminar entitled “Beach Get Involved”. The seminar completed its run from November 11 to 15 and turned out to be a successful venture.

The FIVB Instructor Mr Mohammed Benhamida from Qatar supervised the seminar and helped the participants to learn more the challenging sport of Beach Volleyball. The participants showed great spirit to learn and improve their skills. They regularly attended the lessons and took out notes. The technical seminar on beach volleyball perfectly served its purpose of teaching technicians (with experience as volleyball players and/or coaches), who had the urge to improve their knowledge and competences of the different volleyball techniques.

This activity was a part of the broader development plan of International Volleyball Federation to encourage more international tournaments and courses in Indonesia, which holds a great deal of potential for the sport and has numerous beaches.

The FIVB instructor Mohammed Benhamida shared his thoughts at the completion of seminar in the following manner, “With 33 provinces and more than 220 million inhabitants, Indonesia needs a strategic plan for the future of beach volleyball.”