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21/02/2016

FIVB World Tour in Brazil for $150,000 FIVB Maceió Open

Lausanne, Switzerland, February 21, 2016 — After successfully re-launching the 2016 season last week in Iran, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) continues the qualifying process for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games through the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. This week will see the FIVB World Tour visiting Brazil for the first of three consecutive events.

Starting Monday will be the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Maceió Open. In all, counting the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Brazil will host six international beach volleyball events in 2016.

In Brazil for the for the first time since the 2015 FIVB Rio Grand Slam, expected to start the FIVB Maceió Open are 48 men’s teams from 20 countries and 56 women’s teams from 27 countries.

The $150,000 FIVB Maceió Open starts Monday and concludes on Sunday. The event is the second event of the year on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015. The FIVB Maceió Open will be played at Pajuçara Beach.

MACEIO SCHEDULE
The FIVB Maceió Open is a double-gender event with 32 main draw teams per gender. It will start with a qualification tournament on Tuesday to determine the final eight spots in the 32-team main draw for each gender followed by two days of round robin pool play. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds. Pool play will be held on Wednesday and Thursday. On will be the single elimination rounds with the quarterfinals and semifinals for each gender on Saturday. The medal matches for both genders and awarding ceremonies will conclude the event on Sunday.

As needed, country quota playoff matches will be played on Monday to determine the final teams in Tuesday’s qualification tournament.

BRAZIL’S FIVB HISTORY
Overall, Brazil has hosted 69 total previous FIVB World Tour events, at least one has been held every season that the FIVB has played beach volleyball. Rio de Janeiro has hosted 23 total events, including the 1999 World Championships. Fortaleza has hosted 10 total events, followed by Brasília with eight total events, Vitória also with eight, and Salvador with seven. There have been 37 total men’s events and 32 total women’s events. This will be the first men’s FIVB World Tour event in Maceió as the women had a tour stop there in 1996.

In the medal count for events held in the South American country, Brazil is far ahead in both genders. For the men, Brazil has 63 total medals followed by the United States with 24, Switzerland 6, Germany 5, Argentina 4, Canada 2, Latvia 2, China 1, Cuba 1, Netherlands 1, Norway 1 and Poland 1.

In women’s medals for FIVB events held in Brazil, Brazil tops the chart with 56 followed again by the USA with 28, Australia 3, Germany 3, Italy 2, Netherlands 2, China 1 and Japan 1.

WELCOME TO MACEIO
Maceió is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state Alagoas, Brazil, located on the East Coast of the country, nearly in the center of the east coast area of the country. The name "Maceió" is of Indigenous origin, and designates the naturally spontaneous courses of water which flow out of the soil. Most maceiós flow to the sea, but some get trapped and form lakes ("lagoas", in Portuguese).

There are plenty of maceiós and lakes in this part of Brazil; because of this, the city was named Maceió, and the State, Alagoas. The new Zumbi dos Palmares International Airport connects Maceió with many Brazilian cities and also operates some international flights. The city is also home to the Federal University of Alagoas. The city is located between Mandau Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean. The Maceio metropolitan area has a total population of approximately 1.2 million inhabitants.

TOP SEEDS
For the FIVB Maceió Open, the top-seeded men’s teams are Brazil’s top-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, USA’s second-seeded Nick Lucena/Phil Dalhausser, Canada’s third-seeded Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk, Germany’s fourth-seeded Jonthan Erdmann/Kay Matysik and Russia’s fifth-seeded Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov.

The second five top-seeded men’s teams competing in Maceió are USA’s sixth-seeded Tri Bourne/John Hyden, Poland’s seventh-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Italy’s eighth-seeded Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Brazil’s ninth-seeded Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos and Canada’s 10th-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter.

For the FIVB Maceió Open, the top-seeded women’s teams are Brazil’s top-seeded defending FIVB World Champions Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil’s second-seeded Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, Germany’s third-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Brazil’s fourth-seeded Juliana Felisberta/Taiana Lima and Netherland’s fifth-seeded Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel.

The second five top-seeded women’s teams competing in Maceió are Germany’s sixth-seeded Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, USA’s seventh-seeded Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, Poland’s eighth-seeded Kinga Kolosinska/Monika Brzosek, Italy’s ninth-seeded Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth and Spain’s 10th-seeded Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez.

FIVB MACEIO OPEN PURSE
The gold medal teams at the FIVB Maceió Open will split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500.

TEAM BRAZIL
As the host nation for the FIVB Maceió Open, Brazil has four men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for this event and four teams in the qualification tournament. Brazil’s men’s main draw teams are top-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, ninth-seeded Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, 14th-seeded Vitor Felipe/Alvaro Filho, and 24th-seeded Oscar Brandao/Andre Loyola.

Entered in the men’s qualification tournament from Brazil are Saymon Barbosa/Gustavo Carvalhaes, Allison Cittadin/Vinicius Rezende, Bruno de Paula/Hevaldo Moreira and Thiago Santos Barbosa/George Wanderley.

As the host nation for the FIVB Maceió Open, Brazil has four women’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for this event and four teams in the qualification tournament. Brazil’s women’s main draw teams are top-seeded defending FIVB World Champions Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, second-seeded Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, fourth-seeded Juliana Felisberta/Taiana Lima and 24th-seeded Josemari Alves/Vanilda Leao.

Entered in the women’s qualification tournament from Brazil are Maria Antonelli/Liliane Maestrini, Angela Lavalle/Rachel Nunes, Eduarda Lisboa/Elize Maia and Renata Ribeiro/Tathiana Soares.

ON THE HORIZON
Placement points for the FIVB Olympic Rankings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continue this week at the FIVB Maceió Open in Brazil. After Maceió, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour continues with two more double-gender events in Brazil. Next up will be the FIVB Rio Grand Slam (March 8-13) followed by the FIVB Vitoria Open (March 15-20).

GROWING HISTORY
The FIVB Maceio Open in Brazil is the 334th men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 296th FIVB women’s tournament since they started competition in 1992.

FIVB 2016
Based in Lausanne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball calendar featured a purse of nearly US$9 million with a season that extended from last October to this October, competing at 23 venues in 13 countries. The schedule includes five FIVB Grand Slams, three Swatch FIVB Major Series events, 14 FIVB Opens and the special Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The showcase event will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Aug. 6-18).

ROAD TO RIO
The Olympic qualification process began in 2015 with all FIVB World Tour events (except the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine 15 spots for each gender that will take part in each 24-team field in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on Copacabana Beach in Brazil in August. Counting the FIVB Kish Island Open, 13 men’s and 11 women’s events remain on the Olympic qualifying calendar for the FIVB World Tour.

FIVB WORLD TOUR PURSES
The FIVB Grand Slam and Swatch FIVB Major Series competitions, all double-gender, each have $800,000 in total purses. The total of $500,000 will be the purse for the Swatch FIVB World Tour Season Final which will feature the top eight teams in each gender and two wild card teams.

The 14 FIVB Open tournaments on 2016 calendar, 11 double-gender, and three men’s only, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.

The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Grand Slam and Swatch FIVB Major Series events split $57,000, the silver $43,000, the bronze $32,000 and fourth place $24,000. The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Open tournaments each split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500.

FIVB EVENT FORMAT
Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. Country Quota playoffs have returned as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.

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