Beach Training » Olympics

USA dominates Olympic Volleyball

Tristo — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:00:30 +0000

The USA stamped it’s authority on the Beijing Olympics as the current world power in Volleyball. For the first time in twenty years, they took out the gold medal in the Men’s indoor voleyball, and took out the silver medal in the Women’s indoor volleyball, losing to Brazil in the final 3 – 1.

On the beach, they took out both Gold medals. In the men’s Rogers-Dalhausser USA beat Marcio Araujo-Fabio Luiz BRA 2-1 (23-21, 17-21, 15-4) with Ricardo-Emanuel taking out the bronze. (Ricardo’s third consecutive olympic medal.)

In the women’s tournament Walsh-May-Treanor USA won the final, defeating Tian Jia-Wang CHN in two sets (18-21, 18-21). The Chinese also took out the bronze.

Olympic beach volleyball – getting serious

Tristo — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:51:23 +0000

Down to the final 16 teams, the only surprise, and a good one for the locals here, is that there are two Austrian teams still in contention. Gosch-Horst AUT [24] squeaked through the lucky losers with a convincing win over Heyer-Heuscher SUI [11], and Doppler-Gartmayer AUT [16] are on fire with three wins and a quarter final against Geor-Gia GEO [15] which I think is about as good as it could get for them.

I will be very interested to see Nummerdor-Schuil NED [5] vs Schacht-Slack AUS [10]. The is the first real test for Josh and Shachty, and from what I hear from sources on the ground, the Dutch guys are on fire. Bwin has the odds at 2.95 for Australia Vs 1.35 for NED, so the Dutch are clear favourites.

Pool B looking interesting.

Tristo — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:55:41 +0000

This looks like it could be an important pool.

Rogers-Dalhausser USA [2] beat Heyer-Heuscher SUI [11] 2-0 (21-15, 21-10).

Heyer-Heuscher SUI [11] beat Conde-Baracetti ARG [14] 2-0 (21-13, 21-17)

Conde-Baracetti ARG [14] beat Samoilovs-Plavins LAT [23] 2-0 (23-21, 21-19)

and then…

Samoilovs-Plavins LAT [23] beat Rogers-Dalhausser USA [2] 2-0 (19-21, 18-21)

Aleksandrs Samoilovs of Latvia

I have a bad feeling for our Swiss friends here. Sasha is awesome on his day, but they have not had a good lead up to this tournament and judging by results, ( I haven’t actually seen them play this year), they don’t look sharp enough.

Conde-Baracetti are old and cagey enough to beat any one on their day, Rogers-Dalhausser are obviously good enough to win the tourney, but getting beat by the Latvians is either a very bad day for the US guys, or a very good day for the Latvians. Probably a bit of both.

Olympic Beach Volleyball

Tristo — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:23:09 +0000

Who will win in Beijing?

Starting with the womens. There’s been one big upset already with the Austrian girls Schwaiger-Schwaiger AUT [18] beating Greece, but I reckon that will be all they do. I would be putting money on Tian Jia-Wang CHN [1], Walsh-May-Treanor USA [2], Barnett-Cook AUS [10] or Ana Paula-Larissa BRA [3]. I’ve thrown the Aussies in there, one because I’m patriotic, and two, because I know that their seeding doesn’t reflect their Olympic performance. Their WT season this year has really been about peaking for this tournament, and Nat has done it before…

The Men? Well Doppler-Gartmayer AUT [16] are off to a great start, beating the Russions who are coming off their first WT win is Klagenfurt. “Carn you Austrians , but like the girls, I think that will be it. The Russians Barsouk-Kolodinsky RUS [9] would need to get very lucky to make it to finals from here too. I think the clear favourites would have to be Rogers-Dalhausser USA [2]. I also think the Ausssies Schacht-Slack AUS [10] are a very good chance if they don’t start to fall apart. They are carrying a few injuries. China are up there and looking strong Xu-Wu CHN [1] and of course the defending champions are always a chance Ricardo-Emanuel BRA [3] but injury might slow them down as well.