Stavanger hosts 10th men's SWATCH FIVB world tour event

For the 10th-straight season, the men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour returns to the "oil" capital of Norway on the dockside City Centre courts at Vaagen Harbour starting with Qualification Tournament play here Wednesday at the US$600,000 ConocoPhillips Grand Slam.

After being an "open" event for the first six years, the Stavanger stop became a SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam event in 2005 as the southwestern coastal city on the North Sea will host the 2009 SWATCH-FIVB World Championships from June 26 through July 5.

With the women being a part of the Vaagen Harbour stop since 2002, the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam is also the first of two SWATCH stops to be staged in Norway this summer. The second Norwegian FIVB stop will be the first event after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Kristiansand August 25-31.

Stavanger now joins Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 14 SWATCH events), Marseille (France, 13), Espinho (Portugal, 13), Berlin (Germany, 12) and Klagenfurt (Austria, 11) in hosting the most SWATCH FIVB World Tour men's events since the start of the international Beach Volleyball tour in 1987.

The seventh double gender SWATCH FIVB World Tour event this season, the women's competition started Monday with a 32-team qualifier being played Tuesday to determine the final eight spots in the Main Draw. The women's "money" rounds begin Wednesday and conclude Saturday with the semi-final and medal matches.

Like the women, Wednesday's men's qualifier will also confirm the final eight spots for the Main Draw where 32 teams will be divided evenly into eight pools to decide the pairings for the 24-team single-elimination bracket to be played Friday and Saturday.

The men's "final four' matches will be played Sunday as the final two teams compete for the $43,500 first-place prize and the "valued" Vikings swords presented to the gold medal team. The Brazilian men have won each Stavanger gold medal with the South American country also collecting 19 of the 27 total medals awarded.

Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes are the defending champions of the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam after defeating Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of the Netherlands in the 2007 Vaagen Harbour finale. The Brazilians were also second in 2006 when Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos won their fourth-straight Norwegian title.

Due to Ricardo's foot injury, the reigning Olympic and 2003 World champions had to withdraw for the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam. Emanuel had won seven Stavanger swords with three different partners, including a 1999 crown with Jose Loiola, and 2001 and 2002 titles with Tande Ramos.

Ricardo captured his first of six Norwegian gold medals with ZeMarco de Melo in 2000 in Stavanger. Ricardo's sixth title in the Scandinavian country was at the inaugural SWATCH stop in Kristiansand last August as he and Emanuel defeated Germany's Jonas Reckermann and Mischa Urbatzka of Germany in the final as Marcio Araujo and Fabio placed third.

With three teams in the men's Main Draw, Norway will have the tandems of Kjell Goranson/Vegard Hoidalen, Espen Goranson/Bjorn Ingeborgrud and Magne Kobbevik/Trygve Leite attempting to make the "money' round spots through Wednesday's qualifier. Norwegians in the Main Draw are Jorre Kjemperud/Tarjei Skarlund, Iver Horrem/Bjorn Maaseide and Oivind Hordvik/Martin Spinnangr.

With the Beijing 2008 Olympics starting in less than eight weeks, the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam is the third to last qualifying event for the Summer Games as the process runs through July 20. The SWATCH FIVB World Tour continues next week in Russia for the first stop in Moscow since 1999. After a week off for the European Championships in Hamburg, Germany, France hosts the final Beijing qualifier July 15-20 in Marseille.

(Credit: FIVB. Click here for further information.)