Official Bulletin No. 31 September 2008 World Volley Edition in English F É D É R AT I O N I N T E R N AT I O N A L E DE News Dr. Acosta hands over presidency to Mr. Wei Dr. Rubén Acosta officially transferred to continue guide the the FIVB presidency to Mr. Jizhong Wei organisation and said, at a special Handover Ceremony in Bei- “together with my wife jing on Sunday, August 24, after 24 years Malú, Honorary Advi- of peerless success as leader of Volley- sor, whenever required ball’s world governing body. “I am retir- by Mr. Wei, we will be ing today from the presidency at the clos- ready to support his ing of the 2008 so action, if needed, in that a new era can unfold for the FIVB,” the best interest of our said Dr. Acosta. sport.”

■ With his wife Malú by his side, Dr. Dr. Acosta made offi- Acosta delivered a warmly received cial his previously speech to distinguished guests and announced retire- media from around the world in which ment at the end of Dr. Rubén Acosta and wife Malú he called for the Volleyball Family to con- the World Congress hand the FIVB flag to new President Mr. Jizhong Wei tinue to support FIVB President Wei as he in June in Dubai, with embarks on his new role at the FIVB. the Congress unanimously electing to 220. The institution enjoys solid finan- FIVB First Executive Vice President Wei cial health, which guarantees its com- “Malú and I, we both wish Mr. Wei all the as incoming President. Mr. Wei will be plete independence. It has an efficient success in his new function and demand President until elections in 2012. administrative structure, training and all those who during many years accom- development centres all over the world panied us with loyalty and devotion to Mr. Wei, whose past roles have included and a programme of high quality sports Volleyball and all those who gave our Vice President and Executive Secretary competitions. Moreover, Volleyball and sport their trust and support, to relent- General of the Chinese Olympic Com- feature among the main lessly continue their loyal dedication to mittee, paid tribute to Dr. Acosta’s stel- disciplines of the Olympic programme. FIVB duties in an effort to make possible lar achievements over a memorable 24 Dr. Acosta’s crowning achievement was new achievements and the expansion of years. in realising his and wife Malú Acosta’s Volleyball and Beach Volleyball beyond dream of creating a fitting home for Vol- their existing frontiers,” said Dr. Acosta. “Today, FIVB became one of the most well- leyball’s future generations. The result organized international sports federations of their endeavour was the creation of with modern sports concepts, with profes- “Château Les Tourelles,” FIVB’s stunning sional officials and orchestrated by demo- new headquarters on the banks of Lac cratic and fair principles,” said President Léman in Lausanne, Switzerland. Wei. “Dr. Rubén Acosta, we enjoy all your achievements.” In this Issue “The FIVB can be sure that I will continue FIVB the march in advance you initiated and • Dr. Acosta hands over presidency try my best to reach the high expectations to Mr. Wei you put on us,” said President Wei. Olympic Volleyball Dr. Acosta was elected President of the • Teamwork key to USA’s golden victory Dr. Rubén Acosta and Mr. Jizhong Wei FIVB for the first time at the 19th FIVB • ‘Zé Roberto’ guides to gold embrace at the FIVB Presidency World Congress in Long Beach, California, Olympic Beach Volleyball Handover Ceremony USA, in 1984, taking over from found- ing President Paul Libaud. As Volleyball’s • ‘Thin Beast’ and ‘Professor’ double “During 24 years Malú and I have done our ambassador, Dr. Acosta tirelessly pro- act secures gold best to honour the legacy of our founding moted the sport worldwide and oversaw • May-Treanor & Walsh defend President Mr. Paul Libaud and we have the spectacular development of Volley- Olympic title never failed to come to the forefront in ball into the success story it is today, Beach Volleyball defence of that legacy which we now changing the face of the game to attract • SWATCH FIVB World Tour: Brazilian, entrust to Mr. Jizhong Wei and his collabo- fans, sponsors and television through Russian, Spanish pairs victorious rators for them to maintain with care and innovative management, creation of in Klagenfurt, Kristiansand honesty the respect of the FIVB general events and rule changes. interest and image,” said Dr. Acosta. Development Part of Dr. Acosta’s legacy is handing • Niger, Argentine Federations host Dr. Acosta accepted the FIVB Executive over to President Wei the largest sport- Youth Volley All Festivals Committee proposal approved by accla- ing federation in the world in terms of Quick Sets mation at the 31st FIVB World Congress Members, increasing the number of • News from Planet Earth to become FIVB Honorary Life President affiliated National Federations from 154 www.fivb.org Volleyball World Volley News men Teamwork key to USA’s golden victory If ever a team epitomised the values of 1984 and Seoul teamwork and camaraderie it was the 1988, but they USA Men in claiming their third Olympic had to work gold medal in Beijing 20 years after their hard for the last triumph. gold. Three times they The USA team, characterised by captain were pushed as being a whole greater to five sets, than the sum of its parts, carried over against Ven- their form from their 2008 FIVB World ezuela in pool League triumph in July to beat world play, Serbia in No. 1 and Olympic favourites Brazil 3-1 the quarter-fi- (20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23) in the gold- nals and Russia medal match. in the semis.

“Team spirit, key athletes and great staff,” The hard work is how tournament MVP and Best Scorer paid off. The summed up the reasons fallow period behind America’s gold-medal charge. that followed America’s gold- The victory was testament to the en 1980s has strength and will of the players and es- been halted pecially Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon, in spectacular whose father-in-law Todd Bachman was style and sug- killed and mother-in-law seriously in- gests a new jured prior to the start of the tournament world order in a tragic incident in Beijing. may be on the Brazil’s Andre attacks against Italy horizon as the “It’s been a very emotionally demanding 2004 champions Brazil come to Men’s Olympic Games couple of weeks,” said McCutcheon after terms with the end of their hegemony. It the gold-medal match. “After we won, I has been an amazing turnaround under Standing in Beijing 2008 had to step outside and collect myself. But the guidance of McCutcheon. Indeed, the Place Teams Medals regardless of my reaction, I hope people team had finished 10th at the FIVB World were watching the champion USA Vol- Championships as recently as 2006. 1 USA Gold leyball team. This team probably a year ago no-one would consider being Olympic Russia, meanwhile, won their second 2 Brazil Silver champions, but they have come out and straight bronze at the Olympics with a proved everyone wrong.” 25-22, 25-19, 25-23 win over Italy. The 3 Russia Bronze 20-year-old Maxim Mikhaylov finished in USA matched USSR as the most suc- second place behind Stanley in the Best 4 Italy cessful Olympians with their third gold Scorer’s chart and caught the eye for Rus- medal following triumphs at Los Angeles sia with some stylish performances. 5 Bulgaria China Poland Serbia 9 Germany Venezuela 11 Egypt

FIVB best players MVP: Clayton Stanley (USA) Best scorer: Clayton Stanley (USA) Best spiker: Sebastian Swiderski (POL) Best blocker: Gustavo Endres (BRA) Best server: Clayton Stanley (USA) Best digger: Alexey Verbov (RUS) Best setter: Pawel Zagumny (POL) Best receiver: Michal Winiarski (POL) Best libero: Mirko Corsano (ITA) Dr. Rubén Acosta presents flowers to gold-medal winners USA

2 FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 Olympic Games Tournaments women ‘Zé Roberto’ guides Brazil to gold The Brazilian Women vanquished any lin- Grand Prix, with four golds gering doubt over whether they are the in the past five years helping world’s No. 1 with a glorious gold-medal them secure the tag as the performance at the Beijing Games. world’s best, but their best Olympic finish had been two Their delightful performances conducted bronze medals at Atlanta 1996 by “maestro” José Roberto Guimaraes and Sydney 2000. meant they didn’t drop a set until the gold-medal match against USA. The Brazilians finished just outside the medals at Athens And in front of 13,000 spectators at the 2004 in a performance that Capital Indoor Stadium, the Brazilians triggered criticism back home won 3-1 (25-15, 18-25, 25-13, 25-21) in and it was their desire to exor- the final against world No. 4 USA, led by cise the demons of four years Chinese superstar player turned Head ago that drove them on in a Coach “Jenny” Ping Lang. captivating campaign that saw straight set wins against In the battle of the two legendary Head Algeria, Russia, Serbia, Kaza- Coaches it was Guimaraes - or “Zé Rob- khstan, Italy, Japan and China erto” as he is more commonly known in en route to the final. Brazil - who prevailed to become the first to win Olympic titles with both a men’s “It was a fantastic campaign, and women’s national team following his sincerely we were not expect- triumph at the 1992 Barcelona Games ing those numbers,” said Zé with Brazil. Roberto. “But this was the frui- Cuba’s Nancy Carrillo spikes tion of all the hard work of the The Brazilian Women may have been an players. We passed through a big difficult sis makers CSM Media Research reported irresistible force in the annual FIVB World time with the elimination in the semi-fi- that the earlier pool match between China nals at 2004 Athens Games but we dem- and Cuba was one of the most-watched Women’s Olympic Games onstrated our strength and we began to sports events on domestic television dur- work again.” ing Beijing 2008, with close to 356 million Standing in Beijing 2008 viewers tuning in for the game on China’s Place Teams Medals Lang, known as the “Iron Hammer” in CCTV-1. China after a sparkling career as a player 1 Brazil Gold that saw her win gold at the Los Angeles On a sad note, Cuban-born Italian inter- Games in 1984 against America, won her national Taismary Aguero learned of her 2 USA Silver second Olympic silver medal as coach af- mother’s serious illness at the start of ter guiding the Chinese to second place in the tournament and attempted to return 3 China Bronze Atlanta in 1996. to Cuba for the first time in eight years to visit her. But before she could catch a 4 Cuba There was further cheer for China as the flight, the news came through that her 2004 Olympic champions claimed the mother had died. Aguero showed remark- 5 Italy bronze medal with a 3-1 (25-16, 21-25, able strength of character to return to the Japan 25-13, 25-20) victory over Cuba. TV analy- court. Russia Serbia 9 Kazakhstan Poland 11 Algeria Venezuela

FIVB best players MVP: (BRA) Best scorer: (USA) Best spiker: Rosir Calderon (CUB) Best blocker: Erika Araki (JPN) Best server: Yanelis Santos (CUB) Best digger: Na Zhang (CHN) Best setter: Helia Souza (BRA) Best receiver: Suhong Zhou (CHN) Best libero: Fabiana “Fabi” de Oliveira (BRA) Brazil celebrate Olympic gold

FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 3 Beach Volleyball World Volley News men ‘Thin Beast’ and ‘Professor’ double act secures gold

“The Professor” and “The Thin Beast” 2007’s SWATCH FIVB World Champion- combined to give USA their second Beach ships in Switzerland. Volleyball gold in Beijing. USA pair and beat Marcio The are now 2-0 against Araujo and Fabio Luiz in the men’s final Brazil in Olympic gold medal matches as 23-21, 17-21, 15-4, recovering magnifi- Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana up- cently from their opening-day loss to set Ze Marco and Ricardo for the Sydney Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs 2000 title. At the inaugural men’s Olym- Samoilovs. pic Beach Volleyball competition at At-

A mascot at the Beijing Games Men’s Olympic Games Standing in Beijing 2008 Pl. Teams Medals Rogers - Dalhausser 1 USA Gold Marcio Araujo - Silver 2 Fabio Luiz BRA Ricardo - Emanuel 3 BRA Bronze Geor - Gia 4 GEO Gosch - Horst 5 AUT Klemperer - Koreng Men’s winners show off their medals GER Nummerdor - Schuil Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luiz finished lanta 1996, and Kent Steffes NED ahead of compatriots Emanuel and won the all-American gold medal finale Gibb - Rosenthal Ricardo, as Brazil showed they remain by defeating Mike Dodd and Mike Whit- USA one of the dominant forces in the game, marsh. Schacht - Slack but it was the U.S. pair who matched the 9 AUS efforts of compatriots Kerri Walsh and Dalhausser, the “Thin Beast” to Rogers’ Doppler - Gartmayer Misty May-Treanor a day earlier to take “Professor” was named Most Outstanding AUT gold. Player. The 6-foot-9 (206 cm) Dalhausser Xu - Wu ended the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games CHN The two Beach Volleyball gold medals for competition as the top blocker (42) with Herrera - Mesa the same country in the same Olympics nine being compiled in the gold-medal ESP was a first. The two Americans teams match. Asahi - Shiratori also claimed the top podium spots at JPN “I’m on cloud nine, Samoilovs - Plavins I guess,” said Dal- LAT hausser after the Barsouk - Kolodinsky gold-medal match. RUS “It’s the best feeling Laciga M. - Schnider I’ve ever had in my SUI life. I got in a zone. I Boersma E. - Ronnes was on a roll. I saw 17 NED the ball and put Heyer - Heuscher my hand on it, and SUI that’s it.” Fernandes - Morais 19 ANG Athens Olympic Conde - Baracetti gold - medallist ARG Emanuel called Kais Kr. - Vesik Dalhausser “a wall. EST He is changing the Brink - Dieckmann Ch. way people see the GER sport. Before, it Lione - Amore was about defense. ITA Now, it is about Kjemperud - Skarlund Silver medallist Fabio Luiz spikes blocking.” NOR

4 FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 Olympic Games Tournaments women May-Treanor & Walsh defend Olympic title

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh suc- in the semi-finals. cessfully defended their Athens Olympic title by beating Jia Tian and Jie Wang The Chinese 21-18, 21-18 in the women’s final at the emerged as a Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground. force to be reck- oned with in front As in Athens, May-Treanor shared the vic- of their home fans, tory with her late mother, Barbara, after with women’s casting some of her mother’s ashes into pairs Tian and the wind and sand of Chaoyang Park Wang claiming sil- Beach Volleyball Ground in remembrance ver and Xi Zhang after the American duo’s victory over Bra- and Chen Xue tak- zilians Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro ing bronze. Women’s Olympic Games Never before in the history of Golden moment for USA’s Kerri Walsh (left) and Misty May-Treanor Standing in Beijing 2008 Beach Volleyball Pl. Teams Medals had a match received so much attention chosen for U.S. television channel ABC’s Walsh - May-Treanor Gold as when American television channel “Dancing with the Stars” program. 1 USA NBC aired unprecedented live coverage Tian Jia - Wang Silver without interruption of the women’s Walsh said she and May-Treanor “felt like 2 CHN gold-medal match. warriors” in the rain-lashed final, where Xue - Zhang Xi Bronze they maintained 3 CHN their record of not Talita - Renata dropping a set 4 BRA throughout the Barnett - Cook tournament. 5 AUS “We’ve been train- Schwaiger - Schwaiger ing for so long. AUT Gold was our goal Ana Paula - Larissa and we did it,” BRA said Walsh, who Branagh - Youngs jumped into the ­ USA air and screamed Van Breedam - Mouha to celebrate the 9 BEL victory. “It was such Esteves Ribalta - a tough match. I’m M. Crespo CUB so proud we did Fernandez Grasset - a good job here Larrea Peraza CUB in Beijing, and Goller - Ludwig I’m so glad it’s GER over. We felt like Pohl - Rau warriors out there,” GER China’s Zhang Xi dives for the ball said Walsh. Koutroumanidou - Tsiartsiani GRE May-Treanor’s and Maaseide - Glesnes Walsh’s victory NOR captured the im- Nila - Ingrid aginations of the NOR American public, Saka - Rtvelo the two players 17 GEO feted in the press Candelas - Garcia for their achieve- MEX ments and both Karantasiou - Arvaniti now on their way 19 GRE to becoming fully- Teru Saiki - Kusuhara fledged stars in JPN their country. Kadijk R. - Mooren NED Indeed, May-Tre- Augoustides - Nel anor, who was RSA named as the Uryadova - Shiryaeva Most Outstanding RUS Player of the wom- Kuhn - Schwer en’s tournament, SUI has just been Fans pack out Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground

FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 5 Beach Volleyball World Volley News men & women 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Brazilian, Russian, Spanish pairs victorious in Klagenfurt, Kristiansand Brazilians Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Osheyko of Ukraine in the Connelly and Russians Dmitri Barsouk gold-medal match in Kla- and Igor Kolodinsky claimed the gold genfurt. Germany’s Katrin medals in the US$600,000 double-gen- Holtwick and Ilka Semmler der A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam in collected the bronze med- Klagenfurt prior the Beijing Games be- al. Shelda, third all-time in fore Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Vanilda victories and first in prize dos Santos Leao and Spain’s Pablo Her- money earned on the rera and Raul Mesa secured the first post- SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Olympic gold medals on the SWATCH was playing in her 103rd FIVB World Tour at the $350,000 Otera medal match. On the op- Open Kristiansand. posite side of the net was a pair of players whose high- After missing out in their first three at- est finish was 17th. The fi- tempts to win their country’s first ever nal score was 21-10, 21-11. SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal, Clemens Doppler dives in vain Barsouk and Kolodinsky finally captured Antonelli and Leao had a men’s title in Klagenfurt in early Au- played only 17 SWATCH FIVB World Tour era Open, I think our play has improved gust. Both the final Grand Slam of the events together, with a silver medal from from match to match. This final was year and final event of the SWATCH FIVB Marseille as the best. Their short inter- our best performance in Norway,” said World Tour before the start of the Beijing national Beach Volleyball history was Antonelli, elected as the SWATCH FIVB 2008 Olympic Games, the fourth-seeded crowned with gold, though, at the Otera World Tour Otera Open’s Most Valuable Barsouk and Kolodinsky scored a 21-19, Open Kristiansand. The Brazilians defeat- Player. Antonelli and Leao has been a tan- 21-15 win in 45 minutes over seventh- ed Norwegians Nila Hakedal and Ingrid dem for three years, the first two playing in domestic tournaments in Brazil. Their international breakthrough came with a fifth spot in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Smart Grand Slam in Berlin this season.

Seventh-seeded Herrera and Mesa scored a 21-18, 15-21 and 15-13 win in 65 min- utes over sixth-seeded Joao Luis Pianca Maciel and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil to claim the second SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal for Spain in the 22-year history of the international men’s Beach Volleyball circuit. Teams from Brazil and Spain met in their fifth international fi- nal, Brazil leading by 3-1. In the Otera Open, Herrera/Mesa played their sec- ond “final-four” of the season. New Zea- landers Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman, tenth-seeded in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Otera Open, won the bronze-medal match against 13th-seeded Austrians Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst 21-19, Brazil’s Ana Paula Connelly works the net 22-24 and 15-12.

seeded Stein Metzger and Mark Williams Tørlen 21-16, 21-16 July 28 - August 2 - Women’s Grand Slam July 29 - August 3 - Men’s Grand Slam of the United States to split the $43,500 in 43 minutes to Klagenfurt, - Podium Finish Klagenfurt, Austria - Podium Finish GOLD GOLD first-place prize. Prior to the A1 Beach become the fourth Volleyball Grand Slam 2008 title win, Brazilian tandem 1 Ana Paula / Shelda, BRA 1 Barsouk / Kolodinsky, RUS Barsouk and Kolodinsky had to settle for to win a World SILVER SILVER SWATCH FIVB World Tour silver medal fin- Tour event this 2 Osheyko / Baburina , UKR 2 Williams / Metzger, USA ishes twice last season in Switzerland at season. “The Nor- BRONZE BRONZE the SWATCH FIVB World Championships wegians played a 3 Holtwick / Semmler, GER 3 Ricardo / Emanuel, BRA and in St. Petersburg before placing sec- great final and had ond earlier this season in Barcelona. great supporters, August 25-30 - Women’s Open August 26-31 - Men’s Open but we managed Kristiansand, Norway - Podium Finish Kristiansand, Norway - Podium Finish GOLD GOLD For the second consecutive week, Brazil’s to keep our heads Shelda and Ana Paula won a Grand Slam, clear and focused 1 Antonelli / Leão, BRA 1 Herrera / Mesa, ESP and the duo extended their winning on the next point. SILVER SILVER streak to 14 consecutive matches on the After some trou- 2 Nila / Ingrid, NOR 2 Maciel / Bruno, BRA SWATCH FIVB World Tour. The tandem ble in the first to BRONZE BRONZE defeated Svitlana Baburina and Galyna rounds of the Ot- 3 Schwaiger / Schwaiger, AUT 3 Lochhead / Pitman, NZL

6 FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 Technical & Development

DEVELOPMENT Niger, Argentine Federations host Youth Volley All Festivals

Participants enjoy the Youth Volley All Festival organised by the Argentine Volleyball Federation (FeVA) in June

The annual Youth Volleyball Festival hosted by the Niger Volleyball Federation (Fenivolley) in May proved a success

The Niger Volleyball Federation part on the first day on May 24 and the This event is promoted yearly by the (Fenivolley) hosted its annual Youth second day on June 1. Niger Federation, which has high ambi- Volleyball Festival in Niamey with nine tions for further developing the mass participating centres in three different The festival moved from centre to cen- Volleyball concept among the youth. zones on May 24. tre and each zone had a different organ- izing committee. To encourage the com- The Argentine Volleyball Federation The main objectives were to offer a petitive spirit, the National Volleyball (FeVA), meanwhile, hosted between competition to the thousands of young Federation awarded a trophy for the May and August their Youth Volley All people who attend the training cen- best organizer of each zone. Festival over five weekends. tres every month and to respond to the FIVB’s request to promote mass Volley- FIVB Technical Courses & Seminars Calendar - September - October 08 ball. Last but not least, the aim was to Dates prepare a two-month training camp for Country Type Days girls in July and August. From To Tunisia Outside Seminar 8-Sep 12-Sep 5 A condition for taking part in the festival Thailand Defense Seminar 22-Sep 26-Sep 5 was that each centre registered at least Turkey IRCC Refereeing 1-oct 8-oct 8 10 girls in order to further girls’ partici- Jordan Coaches Level I 4-Oct 16-Oct 13 pation in Volleyball. Six hundred boys Iran Coaches Level I 11-Oct 22-Oct 12 and girls aged from 10 to 14, currently Bahrain VIS Seminar 11-Oct 15-Oct 5 in the learning stage of the sport, took India Middle Player Seminar 21-Oct 25-Oct 5 World Volley News FIVB Volleyball Cooperation Programme Calendar - September - October 08 Dates Official Bulletin of theFI VB Country Type Days From To FIVB founded in 1947 Central African Rep. VCP Young Players 1-Sep 6-Sep 6 President: Mr. Jizhong Wei Guyana VCP Teachers 8-Sep 13-Sep 6 Château Les Tourelles Papua New Guinea VCP Coaches 15-Sep 22-Sep 8 Chemin Edouard-Sandoz 2-4 Honduras VCP Coaches 21-Sep 28-Sep 8 CH-1006 Lausanne Gabon VCP Young Players 22-Sep 27-Sep 6 Tel: + 41 21 345 35 35 • Fax: + 41 21 345 35 45 Mongolia VCP Teachers 22-Sep 27-Sep 6 Web Site: www.fivb.org Guinea VCP Refereeing 22-Sep 27-Sep 6 E-mail: [email protected] Ethiopia VCP Teachers 1-Oct 6-Oct 6 Bahamas VCP Refereeing 4-Oct 9-Oct 6 Editor: Communication Department Printed in Switzerland Cameroon VCP Young Players 6-Oct 11-Oct 6 Lesotho VCP Teachers 7-Oct 12-Oct 6 No.31 • September 2008 Gambia VCP Refereeing 12-Oct 17-Oct 6

FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008 7 News & Global Calendar World Volley News

2008 Global Calendar - Competitions and Events - Volleyball & Beach Volleyball QuickSets DATES EVENT COUNTRY ORG. M/W Brazilian stars retire Aug. 30/Sep. 7 Junior Men U20 ECH Brno, Czech Republic CEV M The Men’s Olympic Volleyball gold- Aug. 30/Sep. 7 Youth South American Championship El Callao, Pucallpa, Peru CSV W medal match between Brazil and Sep. 1-10 9th African Nations championship - Youth Seychelles, Tunisia CAVB W USA marked the end of an era for cel- Sep. 2-7 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Myslowice, Poland FIVB W ebrated “Seleção” Anderson Rodrigues Sep. 2-7 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Mallorca, Spain FIVB M and Gustavo Endres. The Brazilians Sep. 3-7 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championship Brighton, England FIVB M/W bid farewell to the national team after Sep. 6-7 2009 Women’s Senior European Championships Azerbaijan, Belarus, CEV W claiming silver medals in Beijing. Both 3rd Q. Round - Home matches Ukraine won gold with Brazil at Athens 2004. Sep. 7-9 2009 Men’s Senior European Championships Belgium, Czech Republic, CEV M “They were the best eight years of my 3rd Q. Round - Home matches Slovenia life, I lived two Olympic cycles and it Sep. 10-19 Central American Championship Nicaragua NORCECA M was marvellous,” said 34-year-old Sep. 11-14 Nestea European Championship Tour Blackpool, England CEV M/W wing spiker Anderson, who will play English Masters for Club team Unisul in the Brazilian Sep. 13-14 2009 Men’s Senior European Championships F.Y.R. Macedonia, Poland, CEV M Superliga next season. “I did things I 3rd Q. Round - Away matches Portugal never could imagine doing. I will miss Sep. 13-14 2009 Women’s Senior European Championships Croatia, Greece, Slovenia CEV W this and I will look back with fond 3rd Q. Round - Away matches memories at all these moments I lived Sep. 15-21 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Guarujà, Brazil FIVB M/W with the Brazil team.” Sep. 16-21 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix Omsk, Russia CEV W European Qualification Tournament Sep. 19-21 Nestea European Championship Tour Sochi, Russia CEV M/W Masters Final Sep. 19-27 Junior South American Championship Tarija, Bolivia CSV W Sep. 20-26 1st AVC Men’s Cup Ratchasima, Thailand AVC M Sep. 20-28 Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship Chinese Taipei AVC W Sep. 20-30 12th African Nations championship - Junior Uganda, Egypt CAVB W Sep. 22-29 America’s Cup Cuiaba, Brazil CSV M Oct. 1-8 1st AVC Women’s Cup Ratchaburi, Thailand AVC W Oct. 1-10 10th African Nations Championship - Youth Egypt CAVB M Oct. 5-11 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Dubai, UAE FIVB M/W Oct. 7-12 Junior South American Championship Brazil CSV M Anderson Rodrigues (left) Oct. 11-12 GM Capital Challenge Cup Men Various CEV M/W and Gustavo Endres 1st Round - Home Matches Oct. 11-18 Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball Championship Philippines AVC W Brazil Head Coach Oct. 12-20 Youth South American Championship Brazil CSV M lamented the loss of expert middle Oct. 14-21 Asian Youth Boys’ Volleyball Championship Colombo, Sri Lanka AVC M blocker Gustavo, who turned 33 the Oct. 18-19 GM Capital Challenge Cup Men Various CEV M/W day before the Olympic final: “The loss 1st Round - Away Matches of Gustavo will be enormous, not only Oct. 27/Nov. 1 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Manama, Bahrain FIVB M for the quality he has but for his very good character,” said “Bernardinho.” “I hope he doesn’t go too far from the match between Cristine “Saka” Santanna ceiro, meanwhile, produced a memora- national team and that somehow he and Andrezza “Rtvelo” Martins of Geor- ble run to the semi-finals before losing can transmit his spirit and values to the gia and Russia’s Alexandra Shiryaeva and to Brazil’s Emanuel and Ricardo. group.” Natalya Uryadova. Particularly memorable was Gia’s cel- Georgia on journalists’ minds More than 150 journalists crammed into ebration after victory over fifth-seeded There were extraordinary scenes at the post-match press conference after Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil the Olympic Beach Volleyball after the the Georgians eliminated the Russians of the Netherlands. “Gia” ran to the at Chaoyang Park top of the 12,200-seat Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Beach Volleyball Ground centre court Ground. The pairs stadium and pumped his arms and fists embraced each into the air below the Georgian flag for other before head- him, his partner “Geor” and the people ing off to meet the of the Euro-Asian country. most press ever assembled at an “This is a great accomplishment for us Olympic Beach Vol- personally and for the people of Geor- leyball media con- gia,” said “Gia”. “I saw the Georgian flag ference. at the top of the stadium when I was cleaning my glasses during the techni- Georgia’s 15th-seed- cal time out in the second set. I thought ed men’s pair Ren- then about running to the top of the sta- ato “Geor” Gomes dium to honour the flag for the people and Jorge “Gia” Ter- of Georgia.”

Renato “Geor” Gomes (right) and Jorge “Gia” Terceiro

8 FIVB World Volley News No. 31 September 2008