World Championship 2011: Brazilian domination

After 7 days of competition, the winning teams of the 2011 Worldchampionship are finally known:

In the Men's category, the final game opposed two brazilian teams Alison/Emanuel and Ricardo/Marcio which was quite an interesting duel as Ricardo and Emanuel played together very successfully the last years. But everyone who has seen Emanuel and the "Mammoth" (nickname of Alison Cerutti) playing together, could not imagine one stronger team.

So the men's final was unfortunately a game without surprises, as tactically Ricardo/Marcio had a difficult position. Knowing the strenght of attack of Emanuel Rego against the block of Ricardo, they decided to serve on the block player Alison with his 2,03 m, 106 kg and incredible strength, relying on Ricardo's block. On the other side, Alison/Emanuel served on Marcio, who had big difficulties against Alison's block.

World Championship 2011: 1st day of competition

After defining the pools, the official game program is now also online on the internet. The games are starting today (Monday 13th June) at 11:35 in the women's category and at 13:00 in the men's category.

All actual standings in the different pools will also be published on the FIVB-Internetsite (Women / Men).

Join us in Rome and have big fun. If this is not possible for you, think on following the games on www.sportube.tv. If this channel is not available, the games can also be watched on www.laola.tv.

World Championship 2011: Pool compositions published

One week before the start of the World Championships, the composition of the different pools has been published on the official internet site (Women / Men).

The exact schedule of the games is not yet elaborated, but a global overview of the games time schedule can be found at the results page on the official internet site.

The Beachvolley World Championships live streaming on Sportube

Sportube, the official web TV of FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships powered by Smart Rome 2011, will broadcast daily streaming live of the best matches of Beach Volleyball World Championships. 

A 360-degree presence will ensure not only direct but also lots of entertainment based around the event rainbow: commentary, interviews with hot stars, interaction with the audience and backstage events. 

The World Championships of Beach Volleyball, scheduled from June 13 to 19 at the Foro Italico in Rome, will take advantage of the important collaboration of the web tv visible on the  website www.sportube.tv.

Thorsten Endres to assume management of CEV headquarters from next October

Luxembourg, June 4, 2011. Ten years after assuming the leadership and management of the CEV headquarters in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, CEV Administrative Director Olivier Mottier has decided to leave the European Volleyball Confederation to go back to his home country, Switzerland, in order to stay closer to his family and explore there some other professional challenges, expressing his wish to stay in contact with the Volleyball family. Mr. Thorsten Endres of Germany will take over his position but there will be a transition as Mr. Mottier will be fully responsible for the organization of the XXXII CEV General Assembly scheduled for next September 16-17 in Vienna and supporting his follower until October 1 in order to assure the needed transfer of knowledge and the smooth run of all future operations.

GSSE Liechtenstein: 5th and last day of competition

For Anne and Norma, this last day of the competition announced the game for 3rd place on the podium, the bronze medal. Their opponent was again the team from Malta, against which Anne and Norma had won in the pool-games-phase 2-0, but with a very tight score in the second set (24-22).

But the game for 3rd place was even getting harder and the luxemburgish team needed to go in the tiebreak to finally win the game in three sets 2-1, after 51 minutes of playing.

If the first set was won by Anne and Norma 21-18, the second one was lost 16-21. But the tiebreak was once again won with some latitude 15-10 and the bronze medal belonged to our beach team.

GSSE Liechtenstein: 4th day of competition - semi-finals

Unfortunately, today was a bad day for Anne and Norma, and Cyprus was too strong to be beaten in the semi-final. After a successful first set of the luxemburgish team (21-15) the second one was lost rather clearly 13-21 and the two teams had to play a tie-break. In this last set, Cyprus continued to score and it seemed that they had successfully adjusted their play after the first set, to benefit from the weak points of their opponent. Final result of the tiebreak was therefore 7-15 for Cyprus. So perhaps, the better tactic decided the game, but this is hard to say without more detailed informations from the players of both teams. (Results)

This evening, at their hotelroom, Anne and Norma have the difficult exercice, as always in this kind of very short tournament to forget the defeat and to focus on the 3rd-place-game that will take place tomorrow, in order to try to bring a bronze-medal back to Luxembourg.

Keep on fighting... yes, you can....

GSSE Liechtenstein: 3rd day of competition

As expected was the last pool game against Andorra the easiest one for the luxemburgish team, at least concerning the score. Anne and Norma won clearly 21-8 and 21-7 and finish first of their pool with 3 games won out of three.

As there was no other surprise in pool A, Cyprus finish second and will therefore be our team's opponent for the semi-final tomorrow at 18:00.

Having a look at the won-lost-point-ratio of the two pools, it appears that pool B seems stronger with Anne and Norma having a ratio of 1.675 and the second team Malta 1.240. In pool A the first team Liechtenstein appears a ratio of 1.200 and Cyprus (because of their first game loss) only 1.112. On the paper, the luxemburgish team could eventually be considered as favourite, but the real truth on the court may be very different tomorrow. But knowing Norma, she will be totally motivated to take revenge, in a sporty way, on the Cyprus team, after the incident in Limassol, two years ago.

Complete results of the pool games

Go for the final, Anne and Norma - we believe in you....

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Presentation of the GSSE 2013 in Luxembourg

Yesterday was also the almost now traditional press conference organised by the COSL. As the next GSSE in 2013 will be held in Luxembourg, the most important and attended point of the agenda was surely the presentation of the games in Luxembourg. If a lot of details are not known for the moment, the COSL could nevertheless present a framework of the next edition with the sports and the locations that will mainly be in Luxembourg City.

After some discussions about some locations in the south of the country, it finally appears that the objective to have games with very short distances between the locations, has overcome the more political views.

Very good news also for beachvolleyball, because if some rumours appeared that beachvolleyball would not be part of the 2013 games, finally the discipline has been confirmed with the plan to construct a beachvolleyball-arena for the games near the Coque on Kirchberg. The GSSE 2013 without beachvolleyball would have been a huge step backwards for our sport.

For more detailed informations, see the articles in tageblatt or Luxemburger Wort.

GSSE Liechtenstein: 2nd day of competition

Today, the luxemburgish team had to compete against Malta, a team not too strong to be beaten in theory. But if the first set was won clearly 21-14 by Anne and Norma, the second set was much more difficult and the girls were struggling as they were led by 6 points on the score. So nervousness was beginning to install itself in the heads of Anne and Norma what made it even more difficult to win the sideouts in order to close the gap. But after 3 successfully defended set points, the luxemburgish team closed finally the second set, and the game, on a score of 24-22. A little bit unexpected, the team from malta appeared to be stronger than Monaco.

Detailed results

After two days of competition against the stronger teams of their pool, our beach-team is on its way to the semi-finals. The game tomorrow against Andorra should be the easiest one, but Anne and Norma have to stay focussed.

Considering the results of the other pool, normally, if everything goes right tomorrow, Anne and Norma should meet Cyprus already in the semi-final, as Cyprus lots its first game against Liechtenstein.

Good luck for tomorrow to our beachvolley team.