Battle between 'the sought and the seekers' at SWATCH FIVB

The "sought and the seekers" won their opening two matches here Wednesday during the first two rounds of pool play matches at this week's US$600,000 Moscow 2008 Grand Slam as the SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop is the next to last qualifying event for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The team being "sought" is Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, the top-seeded women's team in the Moscow 2008 Grand Slam. The Americans are competing against fifth-seeded Jen Boss and April Ross for the United States' second berth for the Beijing Summer Games behind reigning Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

The "seekers" are Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly, the third-seed Moscow 2008 Grand Slam Beach Volleyball tandem. The Brazilians are challenging fourth-seeded Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro for the second team from the South American country behind Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca, the three-time SWATCH FIVB World Tour champions.

With the four rivals leading their pools to earn a first-round "bye" when bracket competition begins Thursday afternoon, the teams of Branagh/Youngs, Shelda/Ana Paula and Talita/Renata are vying for one of the four seeds in the single-elimination phase of the Moscow 2008 Grand Slam competition. Boss and Ross could be seeded as high as fifth if they advance from their group as the top team.

At the start of competition Wednesday, Branagh and Youngs are currently ranked sixth on the Beijing 2008 Olympic qualifying list with 4,300 points for their best eight finishes on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour since May 2007. Boss and Ross are 80 points behind (4,220). Branagh and Youngs need to place fourth or higher this week to improve their Beijing total while their compatriots need to place fifth or higher.

Shelda, a two-time Olympic silver medal winner with Adriana Behar in 2000 and 2004, and Ana Paula are currently 520 points behind Talita and Renata with a total of 3,800 points for their best eight SWATCH placements. With the Russian capital and the final qualifying event in France (Marseille, July 15) remaining in the process, Shelda and Ana Paula must hope that Talita and Renata can not replace their lowest counted event total.

Talita and Renata must finish fourth or higher this week and/or third or higher in France to improve their Olympic total as the Brazilians won the 2007 Marseille gold medal winners. If Talita and Renata's total stays at 4,320 points with no improvement in the Russian capital and France, Shelda and Ana Paula must place on the Moscow 2008 Grand Slam podium and net a silver medal in Marseille.

Second-seeded Jia Tian and Jie Wang snapped a five-match SWATCH FIVB World Tour losing streak with an opening win over a team from Russia Wednesday, but the Chinese were upset in pool play by 18th-seeded Milagros Crespo and imara Esteves Ribalta of Cuba 16-21, 19-21 and 15-10.

Tian and Wang play pool leaders and 15th-seeded Reike Brink-Abeler and Hella Jurich of Germany Thursday morning while the Cubans play Viktoria Rastykus and Natalia Stepanova of Russia. If two teams tie in a pool, head-to-head competition determines the better placement. A three-way tie is broken by set and point ratios.

Other pool leaders entering Thursday's final group matches are sixth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang of China, seventh-seeded Vasso Karadassiou/Vassiliki Arvaniti of Greece and eighth-seeded Rachel Wacholder/Tyra Turner of the United States. Xue and Zhang won 2008 SWATCH stop in Korea while the Greeks and Americans have FIVB silver medal finishes to their credit this year.

The Moscow 2008 Grand Slam also features men's competition where the qualifier was played Wednesday with the opening Main Draw pool play matches Thursday. With Moscow hosting a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event for the first-time since 1999, the women's medal matches will be Saturday followed by the men's podium placement matches Sunday as the final two teams in each gender compete for the $43,500 first-place prizes.

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