Preview of 2010 SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship
The under-19 World Youth Beach Volleyball Championship on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour has reached the city of Porto in Portugal this year. The international event in Porto is solely the result of constant efforts of Portuguese Volleyball Federation (PVF). The president of PVF Vicente Araujo and tournament director Teaodemiro Carvalho played a vital role in bringing the great volleyball sensation to their native city. In the past, the PVF has organised 13 men’s and 9 women’s events in collaboration with SWATCH FIVB World Tour in Espinho but this time they decided to market the beautiful city of Porto.
Porto is hosting the “major” international beach volleyball event for the first time and it is a great opportunity for the players to show their bright side to the world. The championship has started on 28th July and the search for the best beach volleyball players will continue till Sunday, August 1, 2010.
Angelo Squeo, the director of beach volleyball events of SWATCH FIVB, is very confident to foresee that this event will help the players to develop their extra-ordinary skills and produce the world-class players in the coming years. Moreover, such events will provide the winners with FIVB rewards, wild cards and even free transportation to play in the main draw of SWATCH World Tour matches in 2010 and 2011.
In this connection, the world’s renowned men’s and women’s teams have gathered in the city of Porto, Portugal, to enjoy the sunshine and a great game of beach volleyball in terrific atmospheric conditions. 47 women’s and 42 men’s teams, a total 89 teams from different parts of the world have been involved in the heated competitions since 28th of July.
The host country, Portugal is contesting in the championship with three men’s and three women’s teams and they have been pre-seeded into the main draw of their particular tournaments. The men’s squad comprised of Joao Lemos and Simao Teixeira, Oscar barbosa and Hugo Lima, and Sebastiao Alves/Fernando Silva. While the women’s side is represented by Maria Caseira and Marta Hurst, Mariana Alexandre and Jaona Neto, and Ana Rita Maglhaes and Judite Marques.
Besides Portugal, various other countries including Germany, Brazil, Canada, China, The Netherlands, Mexico, Denmark, Belarus, Greece, Italy Czech Republic, Norway, Russia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, France, Hungry, Croatia, Switzerland, United States, Spain, Slovenia, Ukrain, and New Zealand have graced the city of Porto this season.
Another prominent feature of this tournament is that it has attracted a number of players from 2009 season to return to the game. Russian Ruslan Bykanov, who was a part of the sliver team last year, has returned to the game. In addition, Spanish Kevin Medina was the part of team, who succeeded to obtain a silver medal last year, has also made to the Youth World Championship 2010.
In this competition, Brazilian teams seem pretty filled with the winning spirit. The men’s and women’s teams have already proved their steel in the FIVB under-21 competitions and earned fourteen medals. The German teams also have outstanding records in the past. They captured five gold medals in the U18/19 games last season. Poland is also present in the ring as a second-ranked country and they definitely target to achieve a better spot this season.
The Netherlands also has multi-under18/19 titles including two gold medals in 2002 and 2007, respectively and their prospects are always high to win the game.
The U-19 World Youth Beach Volleyball Tournament has attracted fans from all over the world. The scores of fans are present to witness the great performances and also to support their respective teams. The activity is slightly reaching to the final encounter that will decide the best pairs of beach volleyball on 1st August.
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