Olsztyn, Poland, July 19, 2017 - Five men’s teams headed to next week’s opening rounds of the 2017 FIVB World Championships in Austria won qualifying Beach Volleyball matches here Wednesday to advance to the Main Draw at the US$300,000 Warmia Mazury Olsztyn Open.
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Returning to the Crooked Lake (Lake Ukiel or Krzywe Lake) venue for the third-straight season, eight teams from seven countries qualified for the Warmia Mazury Olsztyn Open “money” rounds Thursday with opening “modified” pool play matches being played on four courts behind the behind the Hotel Omega.
This week’s FIVB World Tour stop is the final event prior to the 11th edition of the FIVB World Championships where play begins July 28 in Vienna. A total of 48 men’s and 48 women’s teams will be competing in the $1-million event with the women’s medal matches August 5 and the men’s finales August 6 in the Austrian capital.
Participating teams in the 2017 FIVB World Championships winning Warmia Mazury Olsztyn Open qualifying matches Wednesday were top-seeded Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse of Qatar, second-seeded Christopher McHugh/Damien Schumann of Australia, fourth-seeded Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen of Germany, sixth-seeded Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg of Austria and 10th-seeded Julian Azaad/Nicolas Capogrosso of Argentina.
Other teams qualifying Wednesday for the Warmia Mazury Olsztyn Open Main Draw were eighth-seeded Armin Dollinger/Jonathan Erdmann of Germany, 12th-seeded Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Aliaksandr Kavalenka of Belarus and 14th-seeded Vitor Felipe/George Wanderley of Brazil.
While the women play two rounds of “modified” pool play Thursday with the top three teams in each group advancing to Friday’s elimination rounds, the men’s schedule features one round of cluster play. The Warmia Mazury Olsztyn Open, a four-star event on the 2017 FIVB World Tour calendar, concludes Sunday with the medal matches as the winning teams will share the $20,000 first-place prizes.
