Preview of SWATCH FIVB World Junior Championship 2010
The 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Junior Championship would start tomorrow in the Turkish city of Alanya. The U-21 beach volleyball event will feature both gender competitions and it will complete its run from September 15-19. A total of 81 teams, 38 women’s and 43 men’s, from 33 different countries will attend the 10th annual event for aspiring beach volleyball stars.
Teams from Canada, Venezuela, United States, Italy, Iran, Norway, Mexico, Latvia, Kazakhstan, San Marino, Russia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Belarus, Australia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, New Zealand, France, Finland, Lithuania, Serbia, Ukraine, Brazil, Germany, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, China, Slovak Republic and Austria will grace the courts of Alanya.
The championship will officially open with separate qualifying tournaments in men’s and women’s categories on Wednesday, 15th September 2010. The 24-team main draw stage will determine the final four positions for the top teams. The tournament has been scheduled to showcase Pool Play matches on Thursday and Friday while the last two days will reveal the results by single-elimination bracket. The medal matches will be played on Sunday and with that the top four teams of both genders will appear on the scene.
This is the second consecutive year that Turkey is hosting a competition of this sort. The 2010 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championship has a lot of incentives for the participating teams. The winner in each gender will be handed-over a main draw “wild card” for the 2011 tour of SWATCH FIVB.
Meanwhile, another prominent feature of this championship is the 10th anniversary of this international event being organized in Europe. The previous eight of the nine events of this age-group were also arranged by the European confederation. During the last two years, Brighton and Blackpool in England had hosted the event while Italy, Poland and Madeira Island also hosted the U-21 Junior World Championships.
Turkey will be competing for the title with its six teams. Amongst them, three men’s and three women’s teams will try to seize the top spot in their own country. The men’s squads would include Safak Sezer and Caner Turhan, Candan Ali and Tayga Baltacioglu, and Muharrem Akkermik/Taha Altinoz. Poland is defending the title this year as they had captured the gold medal at U-21 World Championship last year at Blackpool.
Last year in men’s section, the victorious pair from Poland had comprised of Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewics who had defeated the pair from Brazil. Likewise, the Polish women had also sparkled on the sands of Blackpool; Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska ousted ladies from Netherlands.
The major threat for all other pairs in the men’s section would probably be the American duo which comprises of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. The amazing pair has a very good reputation. They have claimed the maximum number of titles on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour in 2010. In fact, they set a new record of most title-wins in a single season.
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