Apeldoorn, Netherlands, June 26, 2015 – Town hall in picturesque Apeldoorn, Netherlands introduces on a new guest starting Saturday as the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) in association with the Volleyball Federation of the Netherlands presents the $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships featuring the world’s best players, being held in four cities in the Netherlands.
A total of 48 women’s and 48 men’s teams have been split into 12 four-team pools for three rounds of pool play with plenty of promising matchups in 144 group matches among 12, four-team pools split into three pools per gender with Apeldoorn joining The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in hosting the biannual event.
APELDOORN OPENING CEREMONIESThe official opening ceremonies for the Apeldoorn venue of the FIVB World Championship will be held tonight at 8:30 p.m. local time during the opening of the annual Dragon Boat festival being held here through Monday. Participating in the opening presentation tonight in Apeldoorn will be Apeldoorn Mayor John Berends along with a representative of the Bas van de Goor Foundation as well as the special event cheerleaders.
Just prior to the opening match at 10:40 a.m. local time Saturday at the Market Square stadium venue, the presentation of the official Mikasa game ball for the competition will be presented. Taking part in the presentation will be Nathan Stukker, Apeldoorn’s deputy mayor and Alderman of Sports, Tournament Director Bas van de Goor, Apeldoorn tournament Ambassador Sander Mulder along with the event cheerleaders and Spike, the official mascot of the FIVB World Championships the Netherlands 20015.
FORMAT & PURSE
With a total of 96 tandems (48 in each gender), two-person teams will be competing for part of a $1 million purse as the Netherlands hosts an FIVB international event for the sixth consecutive year. Anchored in The Hague round-robin Pool Play will be played in The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam along with the first three rounds of elimination play for the 32 teams remaining per gender following three rounds of pool play. There will be three pools (12 teams) from each gender in each city for the three rounds of pool play and elimination rounds through the quarterfinals. The quarterfinal winners will then move to the semifinals and medal matches for each gender to be played in The Hague. The event starts Friday with the women’s medal matches on July 4 and the men’s on July 5.
The gold medal winning teams in each gender will earn $70,000 while the silver medalists will take home $52,000 with the bronze medalists netting $40,000 with $30,000 going to the fourth place finishers.
AMIABLE APELDOORN
The city of Apeldoorn is situated in the Veluwe, the largest low-land nature reserve in north-western Europe. The area consists of woods and heathlands and is a popular destination with tourists, who visit the area for its excellent hiking and cycling. Its space and tranquility make Apeldoorn one of the most popular Dutch cities to live in.
The Dutch royal family has always had close ties with Apeldoorn, which is home to the stately Het Loo Palace, the former summer residence of the Dutch Royal family. The palace was built by William III of Orange in the seventeenth century. Today, the palace and its gardens are a national museum and open to the public.
Apeldoorn is arguably the most volleyball-minded city in the Netherlands. Volleyball club Dynamo’s men’s and women’s teams are in the top national divisions and have produced many of the country’s internationals. Examples include FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015 Tournament Director Bas van de Goor and Dutch beach volleyball legends Richard Schuil and Reinder Nummerdor.
APELDOORN FACTS
Population: 157,534; Monuments: 222; Province: Gelderland; Size: 341,15km2; Website: http://www.uitinapeldoorn.nl/
MARKET SQUARE
All matches in Apeldoorn will be played on Market Square. A purpose stadium with a capacity of 2,000 seats has been erected on the atmospheric square in the city centre. Market Square is overlooked by the modern town hall and is surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants. Apeldoorn will stage 35 pool matches, eight round of 32 matches, eight round of 16 matches and two quarterfinals.
MAGICAL MATCHUPS
While there are certain to be the predictable numerous upsets during pool play as great athletes step up to meet the challenge, there are also some very interesting matchups based on the pool assignments determined by the Drawing of Lots in The Hague in early April.
With one of the top 12 seeds in the tournament in each of the 12 pools, the three Apeldoorn men’s and three Apeldoorn women’s pools each will offer multiple exciting matchups:
Leading the way in the Apeldoorn’s field will be gold medal winners in each gender from last week’s smart FIVB St. Petersburg Grand Slam presented by AVP and held in Florida, USA. Winning men’s gold was USA’s Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson while capturing the women’s gold medal was Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas.
SATURDAY’S SPOTLIGHT
Lighting up the Apeldoorn sky Saturday will be eight pool play matches at the Market Square stadium, six men’s and four women’s including one in each gender featuring a team from the host country Netherlands.
Leading the men’s showcase events on Saturday in Apeldoorn will be USA’s 14th-seeded Gibb/Patterson testing Spain’s 35th-seeded Francisco Marco/Christian Garcia at 6 p.m. local time and the host country men’s feature between Netherland’s Michael van Dorsten/Steven van de Velde at 12 p.m. local time.
Spotlighting in the women’s action, Brazil’s sixth-seeded Bednarczuk/Seixas will meet Cuba’s Lianma Flores/Leila Martinez at 4 p.m. local time and Netherland’s 46th-seeded Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema will play USA’s third-seeded Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross at 9 p.m. local time.
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
WOMEN’S DAILY SCHEDULE – Saturday, June 27
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (Time, seed, players, country)
POOL C in Apeldoorn
11 a.m. – (22) Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada vs. (27) Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia
9 p.m. – (3) Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States vs. (46) Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema, Netherlands
POOL F in Apeldoorn
4 p.m. – (6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil vs. (43) Lianma Flores/Leila Martinez, Cuba
7 p.m. – (19) Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy, United States vs. (30) Bibiana Candelas/Claudia Rios, Mexico
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
MEN’S DAILY SCHEDULE – Saturday, June 27
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (Time, seed, players, country)
POOL F in Apeldoorn
12 p.m. – (19) Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile vs. (30) Michael van Dorsten/Steven van de Velde, Netherlands
1 p.m. – (6) Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins, Latvia vs. (43) Yaroslav Koshkarev/Dimitri Barsouk, Russia
POOL C in Apeldoorn
2 p.m. – (3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil vs. (46) Joshua Court/Damien Schumann, Australia
3 p.m. – (22) Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst vs. (27) Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse, Qatar
POOL K in Apeldoorn
6 p.m. – (14) Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States vs. (35) Francisco Marco/Christian Garcia, Spain
8 p.m. – (11) Alvaro Filho/Vitor Felipe, Brazil vs (38) Pablo Bianchi/Julian Azaad, Argentina