Alison & Bruno headline men’s FIVB World Championship field

Lausanne, Switzerland, June 7, 2017 - They’re back!

“They” are Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt as the world’s most dominant men’s beach volleyball team the past two-plus seasons will be back to defend their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship title as the Brazilians were one of 23 teams from 12 countries that qualified for the 2017 FIVB World Championships via the FIVB World Tour entry rankings following last weekend’s stop in Moscow.

Qualification process - Men







The 11th edition of the FIVB World Championships will be held July 28 through August 6 at the state-of-the art Vienna Centre Court at Donauinsel with the focal point of the action and entertainment being held with a picturesque view of the Danube River and the lively atmosphere of the Beach Village.  A total of $1-million in prize money will be awarded with the winning men’s and women’s teams splitting the $60,000 first-place prizes.

Quick links - Beach volleyball:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Vienna 2017
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2017
Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games - Beach Volleyball
FIVB.com - Beach Volleyball
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Other countries
In addition to Brazil with four qualifying pairs, other countries earning spots in the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships via the FIVB World Tour entry rankings were host Austria, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain and the United States. Austria also garnered a second spot due to its host country role.

After winning the 2015 worlds in the Netherlands, Alison and Bruno validated their gold medal won at The Hague by placing atop the podium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. At the 2015 worlds event played at four sites in the Netherlands (The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Apeldoorn), Alison and Bruno won eight-straight matches highlighted by a 2-1 (12-21, 21-14, 22-20) gold medal win in 54 minutes over Dutchmen Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst.



After starting the 2015 campaign slowly with a fourth, a 17th and two ninths and a 13-7 match mark, Alison and Bruno ended the season by winning six of the next seven FIVB events starting with the gold medal victory in The Hague. During the seven-event stretch, Alison and Bruno won 47 of 52 matches (90.4 winning percentage) highlighted by gold medal success at the 2015 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in the United States on Fort Lauderdale beach in south Florida.

The Partnership
Since forming their partnership in 2014, Alison and Bruno have amassed over $1-million in earnings together with a 168-41 match mark (80.4 winning percentage) for 34 FIVB World Tour events.  The pair has won 12 gold medals, placed with 17 podium placements and 21 final four finishes.

A regular on the FIVB World Tour since 2008 with 16 international titles to his credit, the 31-year old Alison is a two-time world champion. He topped the 2011 podium with the legendary Emanuel Rego at the Foro Italico in Rome. Alison and Emanuel claimed the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics Games after losing the finale to Germans Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, the 2009 world champions.

Before becoming a regular on the international circuit, the 30-year old Bruno captured the 2006 FIVB Under-21 World Championship with Pedro Solberg.  Prior to the teaming with Alison, Bruno and Pedro captured two FIVB World Tour gold medals in 2013 as the pair placed fifth at the World Championships in Poland.

Other world champions
Also qualifying for the 2017 FIVB World Championships event are the former gold medal winners Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen from the Netherlands. With the 2013 FIVB World Championships played in Stare Jablonki, Poland, the Dutchmen defeated Brazilians Alvaro Filho and Ricardo Santos in the gold medal match. Last August at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Brouwer and Meeuwsen captured the bronze medal after losing to Alison and Bruno in the Copacabana semifinals.

Returning to the World Championship scene after missing the 2015 event due to injury is Phil Dalhausser, who will be playing with American partner Nick Lucena. Dalhausser captured the 2007 FIVB World Championship gold medal with Todd Rogers at Gstaad, Switzerland. A year later at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Dalhausser and Rogers topped the Beijing podium after defeating 2005 world champs Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil in the finals.


Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena celebrate a point in Moscow

The 2017 FIVB World Championship field will feature seven teams with previous experience together in the event, including Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria, Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk of Canada, Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt of Chile, Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez of Cuba, Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia, Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen of Mexico and Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain.

Lupo and Nicolai, who have placed ninth and 17th in their previous two appearances at the World Championships, claimed the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after losing to Alison and Bruno in the Copacabana finale.  Nicolai captured two FIVB Under-21 World Championships for Italy in 2007 and 2008 with Francesco Giontella.

Four teams each
Brazil and the United States will have four men’s teams in the competition with the other pairs from the South American country being Saymon Barbosa/Alvaro Filho, Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola and Gustavo "Guto" Carvalhaes/Pedro Solberg. Evandro and Pedro captured the bronze medal together at the 2015 FIVB World Championships.

Joining Dalhausser/Lucena as American participants in the 2017 FIVB World Championships are Theo Brunner/Casey Patterson, Taylor Crabb/Jake Gibb and Ryan Doherty/John Hyden. The 44-year old Hyden is the oldest men’s player to win a FIVB World Tour event as he and Tri Bourne defeated Doherty and Lucena for a 2014 gold medal in Berlin.

Austria, Canada, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Russia will have two teams in the 2017 FIVB World Championships. The Russian pairs of Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Nikita Liamin and Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin placed second and third at the final qualifying event this past weekend in Moscow.  The 20-year old Stoyanovskiy and 21-year old Yarzutkin captured the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic gold medal.

Austrian hopefuls in the 2017 FIVB World Championships are Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst and Christoph Dressler/Thomas Kunert. Doppler and Horst are three-time Olympians and played together in the last two Summer Games in London and Rio. Alison and Bruno’s only defeat in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was a three-set pool play setback (2-1 - 23-21, 16-21, 15-13 in 57 minutes) to Doppler and Horst.


Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst

Canadians duos scheduled to compete in Vienna will be Saxton/Schalk and Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter. Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri with join Lupo and Nicolai as Italian entrants with Poland being represented by Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl/Grzegorz Fijalek. Kantor and Losiak have won three FIVB Age Group World Championship gold medals.

The second Latvian pair in the World Championships is Martins Plavins/Haralds Regza.  Plavins teamed with Smedins to win the bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  With Smedins sidelined with a knee injury in 2015, Plavins and Samoilovs placed 17th in the last World Championships.

Continental qualifiers to be confirmed later today.