The best women’s beach volley teams in the world are heading to Phuket in November for the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, the final round of the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, which will be held on Karon beach from 1–6 November 2011.
This year’s season finale has drawn the cream of beach volleyball to the sands on Karon beach, including current World Champions and No 1 ranked players in the world, Julian and Larissa from Brazil. As well as winning the 2011 World Championships in Rome, the team has finished in the gold medal position in 5 other tournaments this year.
World Ranked No.1 and current world champions Larissa and Juliana from Brazil.
Their closest rivals are reigning Olympic Champions May-Treanor and Walsh from the USA who are currently occupying the No 2 spot in the world rankings. Asia’s leading beach volley team, the Chinese duo of Xue and Zhang Xi, are holding down 3rd place in the rankings.
Notable entries in the tournament are last year’s runners-up Cicolari and Menegatti from Italy and the 3rd place finishers Marie Clara and Carol from Brazil. Both teams feature in the world’s top 10.
In total 17 of the world’s top 20 ranked teams have already entered the tournament and by close of entries at the end of this month, the total number of teams entering the tournament is likely to exceed last year’s record of 70 teams.
To date, 32 countries have already entered including; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, USA and Vanuatu.
Thailand as host country is allowed 2 automatic slots in the main draw, and a corresponding number of places in the qualification tournament.
The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT is played over 6 days of competition with matches starting from 09.00 daily, except on the finals day on Sunday 6 November, when the competition begins at 15.00.
There will be a”live” TV broadcast nationally and internationally from 15.00 – 17.00 of the 2 semi-final matches on Saturday 5 November and the finals and 3rd/4th place play-off on Sunday 6 November.
Supporting the main event are a number of activities including the PTT Schools Cup and PTT Beach Volleyball camps on the finals weekend and a large sponsor activity zone featuring sponsor booths, a beer garden and games and competitions for beach volley fans. Admission to the tournament is free.
For more information on the tournament, please contact Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd at Tel: 02 311 3414/5 or via the website at www.pentanglepromotions.com.
