Photo curtesy of fivb.org

Brasilia Swatch World Tour 2012

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser have started the season as they finished the last one, winning the Brasilia Swatch World Tour 2012 FIVB event, but they did it the hard way after losing in the second round to Santos-Vitor Felipe.

The big surprise was the second placed Fuerbringer and Lucena, who also battled through the losers bracket, losing in round three to Herrera-Gavira ESP but then repaying the favour to beat the Spaniards in the semi final. Also worth noting was the victory in the game for 9th where they eliminated Olympic qualification rivals and fellow Americans Gibb-Rosenthal.

Ricardo also made sure his presence was also felt, taking the third place on the podium with team mate Pedro Henrique Cunha.

Injury Alison-Emanuel BRA: Alison-Emanuel were forced to withdraw from there 7th place match against Roger-Dalhousser when Alison injured himself chasing a ball over the barriers. It is reported that he has received nine stitches.

In the Brasilia Swatch World Tour 2012 women’s tournament China has started the season with a win, Xue-Zhang Xi beating Brasilians Talita-Antonelli convincingly in the final. There was not a lot to separate the last 6 teams in the women’s event, with five out of six of the final games decided in the third set, and four of those by only two points.

Photo courtesy of FIVB.org

The race for USA’s second Mens Olympic Beach Volleyball qualification place is a tight one, and might come to a head in the play off for 9th in Brasilia!

The current FIVB Olympic rankings show Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena on 3,700 points while Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal are on 3,640 points, just 60 points behind.

Right now, Fuerbringer-Lucena have the advantage in seedings and this may have been the difference so far in Brasilia, where Gibb-Rosenthal have lost their second match in a close 3 setter to Erdmann-Matysik GER (7), while Fuerbringer-Lucena won fairly easily against Dollinger-Windscheif GER [13]. they both have tough matches coming up, but with no losses yet Fuerbringer-Lucena are already one round ahead and still have a second chance.

However, Fuerbringer-Lucena meet the Spanish team Herrera-Gavira next, and if they fail there, then Gibb-Rosenthal will have the opportunity to force a showdown in the playoff for 9th.

Photo courtesy of FIVB

Qualifiers have kicked off in Brasilia. With the women’s draw now complete there have been a couple of interesting results.

Firstly two of the three qualifying Dutch teams have made it through, Van der Vlist-Mooren and Meppelink-van Gestel, both upsetting higher seeded teams in the final round. They will join Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel making a total of three Dutch teams in the main draw.

The British team of Johns-Boulton (GBR) defeated Angie Akers and Brittany Hochevar (USA) in a close three set match and a pretty big upset. This is a great start for the Brits given that they so close to playing as the host country in London this July. Luckily for the US team, they are through to the main draw as the lucky loser. The bad news here is that they will take the place of Austria’s number one team Schwaiger – Schwaiger who withdrew due to illness.

The men’s qualification draw will start in just a few hours. I’ll be watching closely to see how the Australian team of Mercer-Slack go. Will Mercer has some huge potential, and playing along side the experience of Josh Slack, he has a chance to make an impact. Other teams to watch, the Canadians Saxton-Redmann and the Austrians, Huber-Seidl.

The 2011 World Tour kicked off last week in Brasilia and from first impressions, looks very much like the end of last year.

In the Womens, Larissa-Juliana BRA defeated May-Treanor-Walsh USA in a close final, 15 – 12 in the third set, while Rogers-Dalhausser USA beat Emanuel-Alison BRA in a fairly one sided affair.

View the full womens results here. FIVB Brasilia Open | Women

View the full mens results here. FIVB Brasilia Open | Men

In the weeks to come we will look more closely at some of the new faces that have emerged in the last few events, and find out who has the best chance of qualifying for the upcoming Olympic games.

From Australia, the team of Bawden-Palmer finished a respectable 9th, proving that their streak last year was not a fluke. They are building their game nicely, and started the tournament with a huge win over Kessy-Ross from the USA.

Other “locals” performing well are the kiwi boys Lochhead-Pitman from New Zealand, finishing 13th. Although they might seem to lack the power game to overcome the top seeds, their consistency makes them a chance to beat any team that isn’t 100% ready to play. It will be interesting to see how these guys do over what is likely to be the toughest year of beach volleyball ever.

Here is the opening paragraph of the new definition:

“During the action of players setting overhand with fingers, the ball must be played with one quick motion. There must not be any significant movement of the ball downwards whilst in the hands and the ball may not visibly come to rest in the player’s hands.”

Now if you take the second highlighted section literally, “ There must not be any significant movement of the ball downwards whilst in the hands”, then even players like Phil Dalhausser might need to speed up his action.

So one of two things will happen. Either players will change the way they set, or referees will choose to interpret the words “significant movement” as “more movement than what we consider a good set.” (i.e. no change in the rules)

See the AVF video and explanation here: http://www.avf.org.au/index.php?id=1361

What do you think? Are these new rules going to help simplify the hand setting rule, or is it just another argument on centre court waiting to happen?