Official Bulletin no. 27 May 2008

Edition in English

www.fivb.org

F É D É R A T I O N I N T E R N A T I O N A L E D E V O L L E Y B A L L

World VolleyNews

Dreaming of Beijing

THE WORLD turns its attention to the four World Olympic Volleyball Tournaments at the end of May

that will decide the final berths avail-able for the Summer Games in Beijing. These very special events will bring unbridled joy for some and heartache for others as players strive to achieve what is a dream for many athletes – to be a Volleyball Olympian.The tournaments in the fantastic city of Tokyo, the scene of the first Olympic Volleyball Tournaments in 1964, the beautiful resort town of Espinho, and Düsseldorf, a city passionate about sport, are a fabulous crescendo to an enthralling qualification process.One of the factors that increases my excitement ahead of the events is that there are many big teams still search-ing for that precious ticket to Beijing. Two-time Olympic Games silver med-allists Italy are in the Men’s Tourna-ment in Japan alongside the hosts, who won gold in Munich in 1972, while Montreal 1976 gold-medal win-ners Poland compete in Portugal. The Women’s event, meanwhile, has two-time Olympic Champions Japan up against strong sides from all corners of the globe in a truly international extravaganza.The Beach Volleyball Olympic Quali-fication process also reaches its cli-max soon – in Marseille in July – with a run of vital events coming up on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour. There are sure to be plenty more thrills and spills before the sand settles and it is decided whose Beijing dreams have come true.

Dr. Rubén Acosta H.FIVB President

■ The three tournaments for Men are in Düsseldorf, Germany, Espinho, Portu-gal, and Tokyo, Japan, with the Women’s event also in Tokyo.

The allocation of teams for the Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tourna-ments was decided after the drawing of lots in Tokyo on March 3.

Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Serbia, USA and Venezuela have already booked their tickets to the Beijing Games Men’s Volleyball Tournament through the FIVB 2007 World Cup or Continental Qualifi-cation Tournaments, while China have qualified as the host country.

In the Women’s Tournament, Italy, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela have already earned their Beijing berths through the FIVB 2007 World Cup or Continental Qualification Tournaments, with China qualifying as hosts.

WWOQt: tokyo, JapanDate: May 17-25Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

in this issueOlympic Qualifiers

• Editorial

• Teams set to battle for Beijing berths

Beach Volleyball

• 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour: Harley, Salgado defend crown

Development

• New FIVB Doping Prevention Tool Kit

Quick Sets

• News from Planet Earth

The wait is almost over. Towards the end of May, the World Olympic Qualification Tournaments are scheduled to begin that will decide the remaining four Men’s and four Women’s berths available in the Olympic Volleyball Tournaments in Beijing.

teams set to battle for Beijing berths

FIVB President Dr. Rubén Acosta H.

Serbia’s Maja Ognjenovic sets for Vesna Citakovic

Japan’s Miyuki Takahashi spikes against USA

Hosts Japan are joined by Thailand, Ko-rea, Kazakhstan (best-ranked teams at the Asian Continental Championship), Serbia, Poland (best world-ranked teams from CEV), Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (best world-ranked teams from NORCECA) in the Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament. ➽

2 fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

World Volley NewsVolleyball➽ The round-robin competition dou-bles up as the Asian Olympic Qualifica-tion Tournament and so the best three teams plus the best Asian team (even if any of the best three teams are Asian) will book the final four tickets for the Bei-jing Games Women’s Volleyball Tourna-ment.

A number of the teams taking part in the upcoming Olympic qualifier played each other at the 2007 FIVB World Cup, with a mixed bag of results.

World No. 8 Japan beat world No. 9 Po-land 3-2 in Sapporo but lost 3-1 to Ser-bia, ranked seventh in the world, in To-kyo. The host Japanese also beat Korea 3-1 and Dominican Republic and Thai-land 3-0.

Poland got the better of Serbia in five sets in Sapporo, beat Thailand and Do-minican Republic in straight sets and dropped one set in their victory over Korea.

In wins over Dominican Republic, Korea and Thailand, Serbia only dropped a set against the latter.

Korea beat the Dominicans 3-1 and the Thais 3-0 in Osaka, while the Domini-cans got the better of the Thais in five sets.

Serbia finished top in the World Cup among teams taking part in the Olym-pic qualifier in fifth, followed by Poland, Japan, Korea, Dominican Republic and Thailand, from 6th to 10th, respectively.

MWOQt: Düsseldorf, GermanyDate: May 23-25Venue: ISS Dome, Düsseldorf, Germany

Hosts Germany are joined by Chinese Taipei, Cuba and Spain in the three-day

round-robin Men’s World Olympic Qual-ification Tournament.

World No. 19 Germany and world No. 17 Cuba last clashed in FIVB competition at the 2006 World Championship when Germany won 3-0.

World No. 6 Spain are the team in form after finishing fifth at the 2007 FIVB World Cup. MWOQt: espinho, PortugalDate: May 30 to June 1Venue: Nave Municipal de Espinho, Portugal Hosts Portugal are joined by Indone-sia, world No. 5 Poland and world No. 8 Puerto Rico in the three-day round- robin Men’s World Olympic Qualifica-tion Tournament.

Poland met Puerto Rico in FIVB competi-tion in the 2006 World Championship in

Germany’s Simon Tischer sets up Stefan Hübner

Japan, beating them 3-1 in Pool A Pre-liminary Round action.

The Polish made it to the Final of the 2006 World Championship before los-ing to Brazil.

Poland finished fourth in the 2007 FIVB World League, while Puerto Rico im-pressed when claiming sixth place at the 2007 FIVB World Cup.

MWOQt: tokyo, JapanDate: May 31 to June 8Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

It’s too close to call ahead of the Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tourna-ment in Tokyo, in which the winner plus the best Asian team (even if the winner is Asian) qualify for the Olympics.

The round-robin tournament, which doubles up as the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament, contains Australia, Korea, Iran and Thailand, as the four best-ranked teams at the Asian Continental Championship, alongside hosts Japan, Algeria, Argentina and Italy.

Argentina have the highest world rank-ing among all the teams (No. 6) but have noticeably struggled against Japan in past FIVB tournaments.

World No. 12 Japan beat world No. 6 Argentina 3-0 at the 2007 FIVB World Cup in Hiroshima and also beat the South Americans 3-1 at the 2006 FIVB World Championship, also on home soil in Saitama.

Argentina beat Australia 3-1 at the last World Cup, while Japan lost in straight sets to Australia, ranked 11th in the world, at the same tournament.

Volleyball World Olympic Qualification tournaments MenOrganizing country Germany Portugal Japan

Date - Location 23-25 MayDüsseldorf

30 May - 1 Juneespinho

31 May - 8 Junetokyo

Germany Portugal Japan

ch. taipei indonesia algeria

cuba Puerto Rico argentina

Spain Poland italy

The winner of each tournament will qualify for Beijing.

In Tokyo, the winner of the tournament plus the best Asian team (even if the winner is Asian) will qualify for the Games.

australia

Korea

iran

thailand

Volleyball World OQ tournament Women

Organizing country Japan

Date - Location 17-25 May - tokyo

The 4 Olympic berths are assigned to the best 3 teams plus the best Asian team.

Japan

thailand

Korea

Kazakhstan

Dominican Rep.

Poland

Puerto Rico

Serbia

3fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

The road to Beijing

Italy’s Alberto Cisolla attacks the French block

Argentina will be playing without Mar-cos Milinkovic, who said he was skip-ping the tournament because of fam-ily commitments. World No. 16 Korea, meanwhile, lost to Japan, Australia and Argentina at the World Cup but pushed the Aussies to five sets.

The most recent FIVB meeting between world No. 10 Italy and Iran, ranked No. 26, came at the last World Champion-ship when the Italians won 3-1 in the Preliminary Round.

VOlleyBall OlyMPic entRy liSt Men

1 china Host country

2 Brazil 1. World Cup

3 Russia 2. World Cup

4 Bulgaria 3. World Cup

5 egypt African Cont. QT Winner

6 Asian Continental Qualification Tournament *

7 Serbia European Cont. QT Winner

8 uSa Norceca Cont. QT Winner

9 Venezuela South American QT Winner

10 World Olympic Qualification Tournament - Germany

11 World Olympic Qualification Tournament - Japan

12 World Olympic Qualification Tournament - Portugal

VOlleyBall OlyMPic entRy liSt Women

1 china Host country

2 italy 1. World Cup

3 Brazil 2. World Cup

4 uSa 3. World Cup

5 algeria African Cont. QT Winner

6 Asian Continental Qualification Tournament *

7 Russia European Cont. QT Winner

8 cuba Norceca Cont. QT Winner

9 Venezuela South American QT Winner

10 World Olympic Qualification Tournament

11 World Olympic Qualification Tournament

12 World Olympic Qualification Tournament* The Asian Continental Qualification Tournaments are played combined with the World Olympic Qualification Tournaments in Japan

‘Good luck Beijing’ Olympic test event hailed as success

FIVB First Executive Vice-Pres ident Jizhong Wei expressed his satisfaction with the recent “Good Luck Beijing” 2008 China Club Volleyball Tourn-ament and said overall preparations for the Olym pic Ga mes Volley-ball Tourn aments were going well. Mr. Wei was part of an FIVB delegation that attended the April 16-20 test event in Beijing to check preparations for the Men’s and Women’s Olympic Volleyball Tournaments through August 9-24 and suggest any adjustments to BOCOG.

“On the whole, we are very satisfied with the facilities, the successful running and the performance of the working team at the test event,” Wei said.

“The preparations for the Volleyball Tournament of the Olympic Games have reached FIVB requirements and FIVB’s suggestions in the past inspections are all implemented.

“We should do better than before, at least better than the Athens Olympic Games,” said Wei.

Wei also reserved praise for the venue staff at the two Olympic Volleyball venues, the 18,000-seater Capital Indoor Stadium and the “batfish”-shaped Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium, which can house 5,000 spectators.

“We are also very happy with the hard work of the working team, including the technical people and volunteers,” said Wei. “If we have the same people working with us during the Olympic Games, we believe we are going to reach a very high level.”

The “Good Luck Beijing” Volleyball Tournament follows a successful dress rehearsal for Beach Volleyball in August 2007 at Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground, the 12,000-seater venue for the Beijing Games Tournament.

Chinese players compete at “Good Luck Beijing” test event

4 fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

World Volley News

There will be a meeting the evening after the drawing of lots to determine the match and television schedule of the first two days of the Preliminary Rounds.

For more information on the drawing of lots for the Olympic Games Beach Volley-ball visit:

www.fivb.org/en/Infomedia/PressReleaseDB.asp?No=16279&Language=0

Beach Volleyball

their best eight FIVB finishes to trail com-patriots Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos (5,240 points) and Marcio Araujo/Fabio Magalhaes (4,740). Brazilians Pedro Cun-ha and Franco rank fourth on their coun-try list with 4,200 points.

Starting with the inaugural Prague Open through May 6-11, there are 10 more Men’s qualifying stops events remaining before the end of the Beijing process at the July stop in Marseille, France. Harley and Salgado were helped in Shanghai when Cunha and Franco upset Mar-cio Araujo and Fabio in the all-Brazilian bronze medal match 23-21 and 21-15 in 49 minutes to split $14,000 for third-place.

“We have started the season by playing at a very high level,” said the 22-year old Salgado, who has seen his team win four of the last five SWATCH FIVB World Tour

Make it two-in-a-row for Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado and three-straight for Brazilian Men at the Jinshan Beach Volleyball Stadium.

The second-seeded South Americans cap-tured the USD 350,000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open gold medal in early May by defeating a team from the host country before a capacity crowd of 3,500.

Facing No. 4 seeds Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China for the second-time so far this season in a SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal match, Harley and Sal-gado scored a 21-16 and 21-16 win in 44 minutes to successfully defend their title,

sharing the $28,000 first-place prize. Wu and Xu shared $19,500.

In addition to capturing their fifth SWATCH title in 18 FIVB events, Harley and Salgado collected 60 more points towards qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. They ranked as the third Men’s team from their country on the Summer Games list after Shanghai based on their best eight SWATCH FIVB World Tour fin-ishes since the start of the process in May 2007.

The most tandems a country can qualify for the 24-team Beijing field is two pairs. Harley and Salgado have 4,400 points for

Fans pack out Gstaad venue during 2007 SWATCH FIVB World Championships

Brazil’s Pedro Salgado spikes as China’s Linyin Xu attempts block

Juliana Felisberta Silva (left) and Chen Xue battle

MEN & WoMEN

2008 SWatcH fiVB World tourHarley, Salgado defend crown

fiVB sets system for Olympic Games’ drawing of lots in GstaadThe FIVB has confirmed the structure of the drawing of lots that will determine the composition of the Preliminary Round Pools in the Beijing Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Tournaments.

A “serpentine system” will be followed in the draw in Gstaad, Switzerland, on Saturday, July 26, to determine the ex-act seeding in the Pools of the 24 Men’s teams and 24 Women’s teams that will compete in Beijing.

In both tournaments there will be six Pools (A, B, C, D, E, F), each containing four teams. Firstly, from the top six

seeded teams in the FIVB Beach Volley-ball Olympic ranking (featuring a maxi-mum two teams per country), the No. 1 seed will be placed in Pool A, the No. 2 seed in Pool B and so on to the No. 6 seed being placed in Pool F.

However, if host country China has one of the top six seeded teams, that team will automatically become the No. 1 seed and be placed in Pool A, while if the top Chinese team is ranked from seventh to 24th that team will become the No. 6 seed and be placed in Pool F. Any eventual second Chinese pair will maintain its seed and it will be drawn accordingly.

The final composition of the Pools will be as follows:

Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D Pool E Pool FSeed #1 Seed #2 Seed #3 Seed #4 Seed #5 Seed #6

Draw between Seed #10 - #12 Draw between Seed #7 - #9Draw between Seed #13 - #18Draw between Seed #19 - #24

april 28 - May 3 - Men’s Open Shanghai - china - Podium finish

1 GOlDHarley - Pedro BRa

2 SilVeRWu – Xu cHn

3 BROnZecunha - franco BRa

5fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour

SWatcH fiVB World tour hots up

Here is a quick lowdown on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Men’s and Women’s events happening in May:

Men’S eVentSMay 6-11: SWATCH FIVB Prague OpenThe Czech Republic hosts its first SWATCH FIVB World Tour event after staging FIVB Challenger events in Kar-lovy Vary (1997) and Brno (2006 and 2007). There is USD 175,000 Prize Mon-ey on offer.

May 13-18: SWatcH fiVB italian Open presented by abruzzoRoseto degli Abruzzi stages a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event for the third straight season. Marcio Araujo and Fa-bio Magalhaes won in 2007.

May 20-25: SWatcH fiVB ViP OpenZagreb, Croatia, stages a SWATCH FIVB World Tour Men’s event for the fourth-straight season after the 2007 Final saw Kristian Kais and Rivo Vesik capture Estonia’s first-ever SWATCH gold medal.

WOMen’S eVentS

May 13-18: SWatcH fiVB Seoul OpenSeoul will host the second of three straight USD 175,000 Women’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Asia through May 13-18, with the world’s best competing in the South Korean capital for the second straight season. The 2007 event was the country’s first international Beach Volleyball event in 10 seasons, with Natalie Cook and Tam-sin Barnett taking gold.

May 20-25: SWatcH fiVB Keihan Smfg Japan OpenAfter a two-year absence, Osaka returns to the SWATCH FIVB World Tour calen-dar by staging its 13th event. Osaka has hosted the most international Beach Volleyball stops since the start of the Women’s FIVB circuit in 1992. Brazilian tandems have won the last nine events.

May 26-31: SWatcH fiVB Barcelona OpenSpain hosts its first SWATCH FIVB World Tour event since 2004 as Barcelona joins the calendar for the first time in host-ing this USD 175,000 stop. Women’s events have been held in Almeria, Gran Canaria, Madrid and Mallorca.Estonian Rivo Vesik serves

events the Brazilians have entered since last August. “We still are at a big disad-vantage in terms of qualifying for the Ol-ympics, but we still have plenty of events remaining to catch Marcio Araujo and Fabio.”

In defeating Wu and Xu for the fourth-straight time on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Harley and Salgado validated their most recent success against the Chinese as the Brazilians defeated their Shanghai opponent for the Australian gold medal at the end of March in Adelaide 23-21 and 21-12.

talita, Renata victoriousTwo victories in the same Beach Volleyball event over the three-time SWATCH FIVB World Tour champions Juliana Felisberta and Larissa is a rarity, but Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro achieved the feat by winning the all-Brazilian Women’s Fi-nal at the China Shanghai Jinshan Open. After defeating top-seeded Juliana and Larissa to advance to the semi-finals, the fourth-seeded Talita and Renata scored a 21-18 and 22-20 win in 41 minutes over their Brazilian rivals to capture their fifth SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal to-gether and share the $28,000 first-place prize.

“This is quite an accomplishment for us,” said the 26-year old Renata, who was the oldest player on the court. “We have not beaten them a lot, so to defeat Juliana and Larissa twice in the same tournament is remarkable. We played very well and we are delighted to be competing at such a high level to start the 2008 season.”

Prior to their two setbacks to Talita and Renata, Juliana and Larissa had suffered two losses to the same team in the same tournament only twice in 53 SWATCH starts since forming their partnership at the start of the 2004 season. During their second-season of FIVB play together in 2005, Juliana and Larissa lost twice to

compatriots Shaylyn Bede (Shelda’s sis-ter) and Ana Paula in Osaka, Japan, and the Vickies (Arvaniti and Karadassiou) of Greece in Stavenger, Norway.

In the bronze medal match, No. 3 seeds Chen Xue and Xi Zhang scored a 23-21 and 21-18 win in 41 minutes over fifth-seeded Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Con-nelly to capture their 12th FIVB medal in 31 international starts together. It was also the Chinese pair’s second Jinshan Beach podium placement after winning the 2006 China Shanghai Jinshan Open. Xue and Zhang shared $14,000.

Starting with the SWATCH FIVB Seoul Open through May 13-18, there are nine

more Women’s qualifying stops events remaining before the end of the Bei-jing process at the July stop in Marseille, France.

Brazil’s Pedro Salgado spikes as China’s Linyin Xu attempts block

Australian Natalie Cook dives

april 29 - May 4 - Women’s Open Shanghai - china - Podium finish

1 GOlDRenata - talita BRa

2 SilVeRJuliana - larissa BRa

3 BROnZeXue - Xi cHn

6 fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

World Volley NewsTechnical & Development

The FIVB Technical Department has put together new educational material on Doping Prevention for Natio nal Federa-tions, Coaches, Athletes and Officials.

This document has been prepared with the intention to educate the aforemen-tioned stakeholders with the best pos-sible knowledge available on Doping Prevention in Volleyball and Beach Vol-leyball.

The Tool Kit contains the description of relevant procedures in the WADA Code, the Prohibited List, Therapeutic Use Ex-emptions, the Doping Control Process, Results Management, Sanctions and Ap-peals, the Health Consequences of Dop-ing and Nutrition of Players during FIVB Competitions.

Our aim is to strive to make sure Volley-ball and Beach Volleyball Coaches, Ath-letes and Officials have the best possible knowledge from the FIVB Medical Com-mission, WADA and other relevant stake-holders.

This material will be given to all National Federations in addition to being posted on the FIVB website. We hope and trust that the Doping Prevention Tool Kit will be a useful guide in the fight against doping.

fiVB technical courses & Seminars calendar - May-June 2008

fiVB Volleyball cooperation Programme calendar - May-June 2008

COuNTRy TyPEDATES

DAySFrom To

Senegal Coaches Level I 26-April 7-May 12Cameroon Coaches Level I 30-April 11-May 12Thailand Referee Refresher 5-May 9-May 5Dominican Republic VIS 6-May 10-May 5Iran Coaches Level I 7-May 18-May 12Senegal Defense Seminar 16-May 20-May 5Bahrain IRCC Refereeing 1-June 10-June 10St. Lucia Coaches Level I 4-June 15-June 12Senegal Get Involved Seminar 4-June 8-June 5Eritrea Coaches Level II 13-June 25-June 13Sudan Teachers Seminar 16-June 20-June 5India Teachers Seminar 16-June 21-June 6Tunisia Coaches Level II 19-June 1-July 13Slovenia Coaches Level I 22-June 3-July 12Germany IRCC Beach Refereeing 29-June 6-July 8

COuNTRy TyPEDATES

DAySFrom To

Philippines VCP Refereeing 6-May 11-May 6Saipan, Mariana Islands VCP Coaches 12-May 19-May 8Burkina Faso VCP Refereeing 12-May 17-May 6Solomon Islands VCP Beach 14-May 19-May 6Comoros Republic VCP Coaches 19-May 26-May 8Zimbabwe VCP Teachers 25-May 30-May 6Western Samoa VCP Teachers 26-May 31-May 6Namibia VCP Refereeing 4-June 9-June 6Afghanistan VCP Teachers 5-June 10-June 6Palestine VCP Teachers 9-June 14-June 6Oman VCP Teachers 9-June 14-June 6Korea VCP young Players 17-June 22-June 6Colombia VCP Beach 17-June 22-June 6St. Lucia VCP Beach 25-June 30-June 6Tanzania VCP young Players 30-June 5-July 6

TECHNICAl

newfiVB Doping Prevention coaches’s tool Kit

World Volley news Official Bulletin of the fiVB

FIVB founded in 1947 President: Dr. Rubén Acosta H.

Château Les Tourelles Chemin Edouard-Sandoz 2-4 CH-1006 Lausanne

Tel: + 41 21 345 35 35 • Fax: + 41 21 345 35 45

Web Site: www.fivb.org E-mail : press@fivb.org

Editor: Communication Department Printed in Switzerland

no. 27 • May 2008

7fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

News & Calendars

DATES EVENT COuNTRy ORG. M/W

2008 Global calendar - competitions and events - Volleyball & Beach Volleyball

Horacio Bastit

QuickSetsfamily man Milinkovic to miss Olympic qualifier

Argentina’s Marcos Milink-ovic has said he will skip the upcoming Men’s World Olympic Qual-ification Tour-nament in Japan because

of family commitments, although the veteran insists he is not planning on hanging up his National Team jersey.Milinkovic, who plays in the Opposite position for Argentina, relayed his deci-sion to miss the May 31 to June 8 tour-nament over the phone to Argentina Head Coach Jon Uriarte and Argentine Volleyball Federation (FeVA) Vice-Presi-dent in charge of National Teams Juan Angel Pereyra.

“It has been a very personal decision and hard at this point of my life and it has nothing to do with (resigning) from be-ing part of the Argentine Men’s National Team,” Milinkovic told the FeVA Press Department.Milinkovic lives in Serbia with wife Jele-na and is set to become a father for the second time in mid-May.

Bastit named Head coach

The Argentine Volleyball Federation (FeVA) has named Horacio Bastit as the new Head Coach of the Argentine Women’s National Team from May 1.The seventh Pan-American Women’s Cup in Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, from May 28 to June 8 will be his first challenge in the hot-seat.

“Even though it (gives us the chance to) qualify for the 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix, the goal is not to finish in the first three places, the idea is to form a unit-ed team for next year, when we will play at the South American Champion-ship (which allows) qualification to the Women’s 2010 World Championship,” Bastit said.

April 27/May 4 23rd African Clubs Champions Championship Cairo, Egypt CAVB W

April 28/May 4 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Shanghai, China FIVB M/W

April 30/May 5 II NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit Colima, Mexico NORCECA M/W

May 6-11 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Prague, Czech Republic FIVB M

May 7-12 II NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit Guadalajara, Mexico NORCECA M/W

May 8-11 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 1st Qualif. Round (home and away matches)

Various venues CEV M/W

May 8-12 Nestea European Championship Tour - Austrian Masters St. Pölten, Austria CEV M/W

May 13-18 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Seoul, Korea FIVB W

May 13-18 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Roseto degli Abruzzi, Italy FIVB M

May 16-18 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool B, C, E, F

The Netherlands, France, Bulgaria, Poland

CEV M

May 16-18 FIVB Country vs. Country Montpellier, France FIVB M

May 16-18 2008 ECH Small Countries Div. Qualif. Round - Pool A-B Malta, Faroe Islands CEV W

May 17-25 World Olympic Qualification Tournament Tokyo, Japan FIVB W

May 20-25 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Osaka, Japan FIVB W

May 20-25 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Zagreb, Croatia FIVB M

May 21-26 II NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit Puerto Rico NORCECA M/W

May 22-25 Nestea European Championship Tour - Swiss Masters Lucerne, Switzerland CEV M/W

May 23-25 World Olympic Qualification Tournament Düsseldorf, Germany FIVB M

May 23-25 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool A, D, E, F

Slovakia, Belgium, Portugal, Estonia

CEV M

May 26/June 1 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Barcelona, Spain FIVB M/W

May 29/June 1 Nestea European Championship Tour - Dutch Masters The Hague, Netherlands CEV M/W

May 29/June 2 II NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit Trinidad & Tobago NORCECA W

May 28/June 8 VII Pan-American Cup Mexicali & Tijuana NORCECA W

May 30/June 1 World Olympic Qualification Tournament Espinho, Portugal FIVB M

May 30/June 1 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool A, B, C, D

Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Greece

CEV M

May 30/June 1 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool A, C, D, E

Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Croatia

CEV W

May 31/June 8 World Olympic Qualification Tournament Tokyo, Japan FIVB M

May 31/June 8 III Pan-American Cup Canada NORCECA M

June 1-8 Asian Women’s Volleyball Club Championship Vinh Phuc, Vietnam AVC W

June 2-8 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Stare Jablonki, Poland FIVB M/W

June 6-8 2008 ECH Men’s Small Countries Division Qualification Round - Pool A

Malta CEV M

June 6-8 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool A, B, C, D, E, F

Bosnia, Slovenia, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Israel

CEV W

June 9-15 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Berlin, Germany FIVB M/W

June 13 Start of FIVB World League Various FIVB M

June 13-15 2008-2009 Senior European Championships 2nd Qualification Round - Pool B, F

Czech Republic, Greece CEV W

June 16-22 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Paris, France FIVB M/W

June 20-22 2008 ECH Men’s Small Countries Division Qualification Round - Pool B

Luxembourg CEV M

June 23-29 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Stavanger, Norway FIVB M/W

June 28 / July 6 u-21 Continental Championship El Salvador NORCECA M

June 30 / July 6 FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Moscow, Russia FIVB M/W

8 fiVB World Volley news no.27 May 2008

World Volley NewsEquipments

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taRafleXExclusive for all FIVB Competitions incl. OG 2008

taRafleXTaraflex Sport M Plus (7 mm thickness colour Teal 6431 and Coral 6146) over wood sub floors or synthetic sub floors

Taraflex Sport Performance Plus (9 mm thickness same colours as above) over concrete sub floors

MOnDOMONDOFLEX Blue Laguna H23 + Rose Flamingo H41

fiVB RecOMMenDeD SyntHetic SPORtS flOORS

MOnDOMONDOSPORT HP-E PVC indoor floor Blue Laguna H23 + Rose Flamingo H41

national federations are requested to select material from the list of the fiVB approved sports material