Playing the first two of three main draw pool play matches Thursday, the world’s best young adult men’s beach volleyball teams continue to illuminate the sand at the 2009 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships, for players under 21 years old. The ninth edition of this world championship event is being held in England for the second straight year and the first in Blackpool.
Pool Play will finish on Friday when the 24 men’s main draw teams play their final pool play match after which the field will be reduced to 16 to begin the single elimination final phase of the event on Saturday.
With the 24 teams divided into six pools, winning their first two matches Thursday were seven teams--the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Poland, and Switzerland. While the others lead their pools outright, the teams from the Netherlands and Switzerland are tied with two wins each.
The event, which is free to the public, continues through Sunday at St. Chads Headland on the South Promenade in Blackpool. In Great Britain for this week’s world championship event for both men and women are a total of 69 two-person beach teams (36 men, 33 women) representing 29 nations. The gold medal and bronze medal matches for both genders will be played on Sunday.
Netherland’s Alexander Brouwer/Christiaan Varenhorst, who won the silver medal in last year’s junior world championships in Brighton, England, defeated teams from the Netherlands and Latvia, Germany’s Lars Fluggen/Stefan Kohler, second-seeded, won their matches over teams from Brazil and Austria while New Zealand’s Sam Wallace-Boyd/Sam O’Dea, seeded 16th, won over opponents from the United States and Russia.
Brazil, which has two teams in the men’s Main Draw along with Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, saw 12th-seeded Alvaro Filho/Vitor Gonsalves win twice, over teams from Spain and Germany. Canada’s 7th-seeded Steve Marshall/Sam Schachter are 2-0 with wins over duos from Norway and Great Britain.
The other two teams undefeated after the first day of main draw pool play are Poland’s eighth-seeded Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz who recorded their wins over teams from Australia and Japan along with 10th-seeded Jonas Kissling/Mats Kovatsch of Switzerland with wins over tandems from Latvia and the Netherlands.
With 20 teams pre-seeded into the main draw and the top qualifiers earning the final four slots, Great Britain has three teams in the main draw.
As the host nation, Great Britain has three men’s teams in the main draw: Seain Cook/Adam Smith, Patrick Crooks/Chris Gregory and Josh Randall/Jake Scheaf. Cook/Smith and Crooks/Gregory are in the same pool and they played each other in Thursday’s opener with Cook/Smith winning in three sets, 20-22, 21-8 and 15-10 in 54 minutes, the longest men’s match of the tournament so far.
Randall and Scheaf lost both of their matches Thursday as did Crooks/Gregory but with a victory in their final matches on Friday, however, the possibility remains that they could advance to Saturday’s elimination rounds. Cook/Smith could also advance, depending on how they do in their final match.
In all, there are 18 countries represented in the men’s main draw.
The 2009 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships are being produced by Beach Volleyball UK Ltd. of Dorset in association with Britain’s Northwest Regional Development Agency and Volleyball England.
Lying along the coast of the Irish Sea, Blackpool, England’s major seaside resort, is 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester and less than 30 miles north of Liverpool City centre.
Pool Play will finish on Friday when the 24 men’s main draw teams play their final pool play match after which the field will be reduced to 16 to begin the single elimination final phase of the event on Saturday.
With the 24 teams divided into six pools, winning their first two matches Thursday were seven teams--the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Poland, and Switzerland. While the others lead their pools outright, the teams from the Netherlands and Switzerland are tied with two wins each.
The event, which is free to the public, continues through Sunday at St. Chads Headland on the South Promenade in Blackpool. In Great Britain for this week’s world championship event for both men and women are a total of 69 two-person beach teams (36 men, 33 women) representing 29 nations. The gold medal and bronze medal matches for both genders will be played on Sunday.
Netherland’s Alexander Brouwer/Christiaan Varenhorst, who won the silver medal in last year’s junior world championships in Brighton, England, defeated teams from the Netherlands and Latvia, Germany’s Lars Fluggen/Stefan Kohler, second-seeded, won their matches over teams from Brazil and Austria while New Zealand’s Sam Wallace-Boyd/Sam O’Dea, seeded 16th, won over opponents from the United States and Russia.
Brazil, which has two teams in the men’s Main Draw along with Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, saw 12th-seeded Alvaro Filho/Vitor Gonsalves win twice, over teams from Spain and Germany. Canada’s 7th-seeded Steve Marshall/Sam Schachter are 2-0 with wins over duos from Norway and Great Britain.
The other two teams undefeated after the first day of main draw pool play are Poland’s eighth-seeded Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz who recorded their wins over teams from Australia and Japan along with 10th-seeded Jonas Kissling/Mats Kovatsch of Switzerland with wins over tandems from Latvia and the Netherlands.
With 20 teams pre-seeded into the main draw and the top qualifiers earning the final four slots, Great Britain has three teams in the main draw.
As the host nation, Great Britain has three men’s teams in the main draw: Seain Cook/Adam Smith, Patrick Crooks/Chris Gregory and Josh Randall/Jake Scheaf. Cook/Smith and Crooks/Gregory are in the same pool and they played each other in Thursday’s opener with Cook/Smith winning in three sets, 20-22, 21-8 and 15-10 in 54 minutes, the longest men’s match of the tournament so far.
Randall and Scheaf lost both of their matches Thursday as did Crooks/Gregory but with a victory in their final matches on Friday, however, the possibility remains that they could advance to Saturday’s elimination rounds. Cook/Smith could also advance, depending on how they do in their final match.
In all, there are 18 countries represented in the men’s main draw.
The 2009 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships are being produced by Beach Volleyball UK Ltd. of Dorset in association with Britain’s Northwest Regional Development Agency and Volleyball England.
Lying along the coast of the Irish Sea, Blackpool, England’s major seaside resort, is 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester and less than 30 miles north of Liverpool City centre.
