FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships schedule released

Vienna, Austria, July 11, 2017 - The opening pool play schedule for the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1 was released here on Tuesday as 96 men’s and women’s teams from 40 countries will be competing in the $1-million event starting July 28.

Schedule - Click to view now.

The 2017 FIVB World Championships will be played 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 a specially constructed Beach Village.

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Following the drawing of lots ceremony on July 1 to determine the 12 pools of four teams each per gender for the 2017 FIVB World Championships, the match schedule will feature 28 games on three courts for the first four days of competition July 28-31.  Women’s group play ends August 1 with the final men’s pool matches August 2.

During the first four days of competition (July 28-31), matches will begin at 10.00 (local time) on the two side courts at the Donauinsel venue with action on the main stadium court starting at 12.00. Competition on Days 5 and 6 will begin at 9.30 on the side courts and 11.30 in the main stadium.

The opening side court action on July 28 will have a men’s match between Belgium and Latvia (Pool F) being played alongside a women’s contest between Canada and the Netherlands (Pool G).  The opening main stadium court match on July 28 will feature Brazilian Evandro Goncalves, the bronze medal winner at the 2015 FIVB World Championships in the Netherlands, and his new partner Andre Loyola against Dutchmen Christiaan Varenhorst and Maarten van Garderen in Pool D.


Christiaan Varenhorst in action against Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt at the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Netherlands

Varenhorst and Reinder Nummerdor placed second to Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt after losing the gold medal match to the Brazilians in the Netherlands. Alison and Bruno return to defend their championship and play their first match in Pool E on July 29 at 14.00 against African continental qualifiers Aldevino Nguvo/Justino Tovela of Mozambique on a side court.

Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas, the Brazilian 2015 FIVB women’s world champions, have split for the 2017 season. Agatha and Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa open World Championship play on July 29 against African continental qualifier Gaudencia Makokha/Naomie Too of Kenya in a Pool C match at 10.00.

Barbara and new partner Fernanda Alves will play Brazilian rivals Elize Maia/Taiana Lima in their first Pool H match on July 28 at 18.00.  In the women’s 2015 World Championship finale, Agatha and Barbara defeated Fernanda and Lima for the gold medal.


Barbara Seixas and partner Fernanda Alves will take on Brazilian opposition in Pool H on July 28

The top host country teams of Katharina Schutzenhofer/Stefanie Schwaiger and Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst will play back-to-back Pool L matches on July 28 against teams that qualified via the Asian continental process. Schutzenhofer and Schwaiger will meet Varapatsorn Radarong/Tanarattha Udomchavee of Thailand at 15.00. followed by Doppler and Horst playing Rahman Raoufi Bahman/Salemiinjehboroun of Iran.

The top two pairs in each pool will advance to the 32-team elimination bracket along with the four best third-place duos based on match points, set-point ratios and/or rally-point ratios. A Lucky Loser round for the teams ranked fifth through 12th will be played with the four winners advancing to the elimination bracket. The Lucky Loser matches will be on August 1 for women and August 2 for men.

For the bracket phase of the Vienna competition, there will be a draw to place each team in the bracket based on their pool standings with the 12 pool winners being seeded No. 1 to No. 12, and the third-place finishers, including the Lucky Losers being seeded No. 25 through No. 32.  The second-place finishers in each pool will be seeded No. 13 through No. 24.

The women’s semifinals and medal matches will be played on August 5. The men’s semifinals will be contested on August 5 with the medal matches August 6. The winning men’s and women’s teams will split the $60,000 first-place prizes.

Austria will be hosting the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships for the second time with the first being in 2001 in Klagenfurt when South American pairs from Argentina (Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde) and Brazil (Shelda Bede/Adriana Behar) captured the titles.