News 08/04/2016 Walsh/Ross seek third consecutive World Tour medal in Xiamen Xiamen, China, April 8, 2016 – American star duo Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross will seek their third consecutive FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour medal as the Xiamen Open kicks off on Tuesday.Walsh Jennings, who had claimed three straight Olympic gold medals with Misty May-Treanor, got off to a flying start in the new season with her new partner April Ross, finishing first and second respectively in the Rio Grand Slam and Vitoria Open in Brazil. The top seeds from the United States will strive to repeat their title winning feat in Xiamen in 2013 while other medal contenders at the double-gender tournament include defending Xiamen Open champions Joana Heidrich and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland.Two weeks after capturing the gold medal at the Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in Australia, Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Xue Chen and her young teammate Xia Xinyi will try to impress on home soil with Wang Fan/Yue Yuan and Chen Chunxia/Tang Ningya joining them in contention.The men’s Main Draw will feature Latvia’s Aleksandrs and Janis Smedins, who finished third in Xiamen last year, and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, the 2014 Fuzhou Open champions.Chen Cheng/Zhang Lizeng, Lin Wuqin/Lu Zequan and Dai Lingfei/Chen Zuhang will carry the hosts’ hopes in the men’s category.Xiamen will welcome a FIVB World Tour event for the fourth consecutive year with the Chinese southeastern port city having also hosted a FIVB Grand Slam in 2013 and FIVB Opens in 2014 and 2015.In addition to the FIVB Xiamen Open, the other stop scheduled in China in 2016 on the FIVB international schedule will be the double-gender FIVB Fuzhou Open, the week following Xiamen on April 19-23.The 2015/2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar began with three Open events at the end of 2015. The remainder of the 2015/2016 calendar will include multiple FIVB Open and multiple FIVB Grand Slam events along with more Swatch FIVB Major Series events, and the second Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The highlight of the calendar will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil featuring 24 teams in each gender.The event continues the road to Rio that lasts until June 13, 2016 with FIVB World Tour events counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine the 15 of 24 spots for each gender that will take part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.The 2016 FIVB World Ranking system will again include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.The 2014-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is back again this year as it completes its portion of the qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News