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08/05/2016

FIVB World Tour moves to Turkey for $150,000 FIVB Antalya Open

Lausanne, Switzerland, May 8, 2016 — Following the fifth of eight straight weeks of events and first of the year in Europe, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) is heading to Turkey to continue the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Quick links
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Antalya Open
Men - Qualification results
Women - Qualification results
Men - Main draw results
Women - Main draw results

The string of eight consecutive events continues in Turkey on Monday with the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Antalya Open. It is the sixth tournament in the stretch of eight straight events. Next week the FIVB World Tour visits the United States for the first time this season, playing the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Cincinnati Open in Ohio.

Playing in Turkey for the only time this year following last week’s FIVB Sochi Open in Russia, there are 66 men’s teams from 29 countries and 49 women’s teams from 25 countries in Turkey for the FIVB Antalya Open.

The double-gender $150,000 FIVB Antalya Open starts Monday and concludes on Sunday. It is the 13th men’s event of the season and 10th women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015. The FIVB Antalya Open will be played at two venues. The primary one which includes the center court will be at the purpose built stadium at the Konyaalti Beachpark and the additional competition courts will be at the nearby Akdeniz University.

ANTALYA SCHEDULE
The FIVB Antalya Open is a double-gender event with 32 main draw teams per gender. The format is the same for each gender with the schedule having the women start and finish a day before the men. For the women, a qualification tournament on Tuesday will be held 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.

On Friday, the women’s quarterfinals will be played with the women’s semifinals and medal matches on Saturday. The women’s awarding ceremony will be held immediately following their gold medal match on Saturday.

For the men, their qualification tournament will be held on Wednesday, followed by pool play on Thursday and Friday. Men’s will also play their first elimination round on Friday. On Saturday the men will play their first two single elimination rounds and quarterfinals. On Sunday will be the men’s semifinals and medal matches with the men’s awarding ceremony following their gold medal match.

As needed, country quota playoff matches will be played on Monday for women and Tuesday for men to determine the final teams in their respective qualification tournaments.

TURKEY’S FIVB HISTORY
A total of five previous FIVB World Tour events have been staged in Turkey. In 1996, 1997 and 1998, Alanya, Turkey hosted men’s stops on the FIVB World Tour prior to last year’s double-gender FIVB Open in Antalya.

Turkey has hosted a total of four men’s FIVB World Tour events and Brazil leads the medal count with six medals and with one men’s medal each are Argentina, Canada Italy, Latvia, Mexico and Norway.

In last year’s first women’s FIVB World Tour event in Turkey, winning the gold medal was Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova, while the silver medal went to Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth and claiming the bronze was USA’s Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy.

WELCOME TO ANTALYA
Situated on a steep cliff over the Mediterranean, Antalya is a picturesque city surrounded by mountains. Developments in tourism, starting in the 1970s, have transformed the city into an international resort. With its airport and central location, Antalya is "the capital of Turkish tourism", a gateway for the Turkish Riviera and many historical sites.

Furthermore with its palm-lined boulevards, its prize-winning marina, preserved historical neighborhood of Kaleiçi, and the modern developments along the coast, the city of Antalya is a major attraction in its own right. Antalya and its surroundings are a very important part of Turkish tourism.

The principal holiday resort of the Mediterranean is the beautiful region of Antalya with a majestic coastline of beaches and rocky coves where the towering Toros (Taurus) Mountains provide a magnificent view behind the city. The population of the city is 2.4 million. Antalya is an attractive city, at an altitude of only about 50 meters. The picturesque old quarter called Kaleiçi which has narrow, winding streets and charming wooden houses next to the city walls is one of the main attractions. Since its founding in the 2nd century B.C. by Attalus ll, a king of Pergamon who named the city Attaleia after himself, it has had a continuous history. The Romans, Byzantines and Seljuks occupied the city before it came under Ottoman rule.

TOP SEEDS
Olympians and hopeful Olympians abound as many of the world’s best beach volleyball teams are entered in this week’s FIVB Fortaleza Open.

The top-seeded preliminary men’s teams for the FIVB Antalya Open are Netherlands’ top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst, Netherlands’ second-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, USA’s third-seeded John Hyden/Tri Bourne, Latvia’s fourth-seeded Aleksands Ramoilovs/Janis Smedins and Poland’s fifth-seeded Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor.

The second-five preliminary men’s pre-seeds competing in FIVB Antalya Open are Poland’s sixth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Germany’s seventh-seeded Marus Bockermann/Larrs Fluggen, Canada’s eighth-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Brazil’s ninth-seeded Alvaro Filho/Vitor Felipe and Germany’s 10th-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik.

For the FIVB Antalya Open, the top preliminary pre-seeded women’s teams are Germany’s top-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany’s second-seeded Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Poland’s third-seeded Kinga Kolosinska/Monika Brzostek, Switzerland’s fourth-seeded Isabella Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre.

The second-five preliminary pre-seeded women’s team competing in Antalya are Germany’s seventh-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, USA’s eighth-seeded Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day, Vanuatu’s ninth-seeded Linline Matauatu/Miller Pata and Canada’s 10th-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke.

FIVB ANTALYA OPEN PURSE/POINTS
The gold medal teams at the FIVB Antalya Open will split $11,000 and 500 points, the silver $8,000 and 450 points, the bronze $6,000 400 points and fourth place $4,500 and 450 points.

TEAM TURKEY
As the host nation for the FIVB Antalya Open, Turkey has three men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw this event and one team in the qualification tournament. Turkey’s men’s main draw teams are 16th-seeded FIVB World Tour regulars Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gogtepe, 22nd-seeded Hasan Huseyin Mermer/Sefu Urlu and 24th-seeded Kemal Sah/Devrim Alibaba.

Entered in the men’s qualification tournament from Turkey is Ali Osman/Nurettin/Safak Sezer.

As the host nation for the FIVB Antalya Open, Turkey has three women’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for this event along with one team in the qualification tournament. Turkey’s confirmed women’s main draw teams are 22nd-seeded Burcu Atasoy/Selin Yurtsever, 23rd-seeded Esra Koksalan/Merve Aktas and 24th-seeded Yaren Sencel/Resmiye Cakmak.

Entered in the women’s qualification tournament from Turkey is Aleyna Vence/Ebru Karayilan..

ON THE HORIZON
With placement points for the FIVB Olympic Rankings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continuing, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour continues with events over eight straight weeks through the end of May. In all, Brazil is hosting five international events in 2016. In addition to Maceió, Rio, Vitoria and Fortaleza, the Brazil events conclude with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Aug. 6-18).

The FIVB World Tour is in Europe for two events. Up first was in Russia last week followed by this week’s FIVB Antalya Open in Turkey (May 10-15). The tour then visits the United States for the first time in 2016 for the FIVB Cincinnati Open (May 17-22) in Ohio and then returns to Russia for the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam (May 24-29). After a one week respite, the final Olympic qualifying event on the FIVB World Tour will be the FIVB Hamburg Major Series in Germany (June 7-12).

GROWING HISTORY
The FIVB Antalya Open in Brazil will be the 342th men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 303rd FIVB women’s tournament since their competition started 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 US$8.8 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 in the United States. The showcase event will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Aug. 6-18).

The 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar started in October in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and included two more open events prior to the remainder of the schedule resuming at the FIVB Kish Island Open in Iran in February.

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 Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Copacabana Beach in Brazil in August. Counting the FIVB Fortaleza Open, eight men’s and seven women’s events remain on the Olympic qualifying calendar for the FIVB World Tour.

FIVB WORLD TOUR PURSES
The five FIVB Grand Slam and three Swatch FIVB Major Series competitions in 2016, 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 returned as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.

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