The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) announced on Monday that the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships in Rome, Italy, will now take place from June 13-19, having been brought forward a week from the original dates of June 16-26.
The change means that the biennial World Championships will now run over seven days, intensifying the television coverage of the host broadcaster and thereby giving the FIVB’s premier annual event increased exposure and delivering more matches each day to spectators.
« The new dates mean that fans will be able to see more action than previously expected, giving them a greater experience than ever before, » Mr. Vicente Araujo, Secretary of the FIVB Beach Volleyball Commission, said. « With the tournament now fine-tuned to seven days, more matches will be played each day giving the thousands expected to descend on Rome for the event more value. Additionally, broadcasters will have more of an opportunity to deliver this world-class sports event to their audience, creating more exposure for beach volleyball and the athletes. »
Talita (BRA) at Foro Italico last year
(source photos: copyright Karim Levy)
After staging a men’s Open in 2009 and a Grand Slam last year, Rome will host the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships in the historic setting of the Parco del Foro Italico. It will be the eighth edition of the biennial event in its current format after Los Angeles hosted the first in 1997 followed by Marseille, Klagenfurt, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Gstaad and Stavanger.
Beach Volleyball at Foro Italico – Rome
(source photo : copyright Karim Levy)
The best 96 pairs in the world – 48 in each gender – will compete for $1million in prize money with Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, and Jen Kessy and April Ross from USA the defending men’s and women’s world champions respectively after their successes two years ago in Norway.
The main draw will be composed of 12 pools of four teams competing in a robin-round system before the top two teams from each group and the eight best third-paced teams will advance to the 32 spots in the single-elimination phase of the competition.
source: FIVB