Beach Volleyball: Brazilians top seeds at Phuket Open
PHUKET: The World No 1 pairing of Larissa and Juliana from Brazil have been named as No 1 seeds at the Phuket Thailand Open, the final round of the Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour 06. Seeded No 2 are current Olympic and World Champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh from the USA.
Two more Brazilian teams – Ana Paula and Leila, and Renata and Talita – will also be in the limelight, ranked 5th and 6th in the world respectively.
The Phuket Thailand Open, carries prize money of US$200,000 and is the biggest beach volleyball tournament in Asia this year. The games will be played on Karon Beach in Phuket. Qualifying rounds take place on November 1, with the main draw held November 2-5. A total of 32 teams will take part in the main draw, including two teams from Thailand as the host nation.
Mr. Geoffrey Rowe, Managing Director of Pentangle Promotions Co Ltd, the promoters of the tournament, said that, “We are really happy that all the world’s top teams will be taking part in this inaugural event in Phuket. There have been rumours in the press that the tournament is going to be postponed; however this is not the case. We have been working for over two years to bring the World Tour to Thailand and it is 100% certain to go ahead. We do not want to disappoint beach volleyball fans who have been waiting a long time to see the world’s top teams in action.”
For fans who can’t make it to Phuket, the semi-finals and finals will be shown “live” on ITV on Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 5, from 3 pm til 5 pm. The tournament will also be shown “live” on Eurosport to over 200 million households in Europe, and will be aired to an additional 20 million households in the United States.
The Phuket Thailand Open is supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Sports Authority of Thailand, the Phuket Gazette, the Kata Group of Hotels, Grand Sport, The Swatch Group, Mikasa Haad Thip and C.S.Loxinfo.
For further information on the tournament, contact Pentangle Promotions in Bangkok (Tel: 02-3823491-3, Fax: 02-3823490), or visit the website at www.pentanglepromotions.com
