Porto, Portugal, July 30,
2014 - All but one the top teams at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World
Championships in Porto lived up to the expectations on the opening day of main
draw.
In the women’s competition
Brazil’s Eduarda/Andressa, Germany’s Schneider/Arnholdt and Makroguzova/Rudykh
from Russia all booked two straight wins.
Germany’s Rudolf/Stadie and
Brazil’s Arthur/George Wanderley did the same in the men’s, but USA’s DeFalco/Richard
stumbled in their first match.
Key points
·
A total of
36 teams per gender compete in the U19 main draw for 24 spots in the
elimination rounds.
·
The U19
competition features two twins: Katrina and Kristina Zilberman (17) and Megan
and Nicole McNamara (16).
·
This is
the 13th FIVB U19 World Championships and the third held in Porto, following
the championships of 2010 and 2013.
·
The
tournament is actually staged in two cities. The centre court and second court
are set up in Porto, while the four outside courts are in neighbouring town
Matosinhos, a five minutes walk to the north.
Perfect start for German and
Russian girls at the U19 in Porto
Germany’s Sarah Schneider and
Lisa Arnholdt and Russia’s Nadezda Makroguzova and Daria Rudykh had a perfect
start at the FIVB U19 World Championships in Porto. Both teams booked two
straight wins on the first day of main draw on Wednesday.
Schneider and Arnholdt defeated the Zilberman-twins from Israel (21-8, 21-10)
and China’s Jiaxi Wang and Lvwen Yuan (21-15, 21-19). Read
more
Venezuela takes early pool
lead at the U19 World Championships
In a tough pool with teams
from strongholds USA and Brazil, Venezuela’s Jose Gregorio Gomez and Rolando
Hernandez boldly took the lead on the first day of main draw at the FIVB U19
World Championships.
‘Tigrito’ and ‘Peter’, as they call themselves, booked two straight wins over
Peru’s Bramont/Arias-Heredia (21-9, 21-7) and home team Bernardo/Leite (21-10,
22-20). Read
more
Lucky losers from Lithuania
happy with second chance at the U19 in Porto
Initially Lituania’s Marius
Barauskis thought his international debut at the FIVB U19 World Championships
would only last one day since he and Edgaras Bartkus were eliminated in the
final round of the qualification tournament. But Tuesday evening it became
clear that they would get a second chance in Porto as lucky losers.
The 15-year old Barauskis feels like a kid in a candy store. He is officially
the youngest player at the U19 World Championships and is really looking
forward to at least three more days of beach volleyball. Read
more
Thursday will feature another
two rounds of pool play, with matches starting at 9.00. The elimination phase
begins on Friday afternoon. The televised semifinals and medal matches are
scheduled for Sunday.
The U19 World Championships
are the fourth and final FIVB age group event this year. Some of the young
athletes will have another important event to go to in August; the Youth
Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.