2015-12-18 12:05:00 CEST
An action-packed FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar awaits fans in 2015/2016, including five Grand Slams, three Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series stops, 14 Opens and the second edition of the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The top teams in the world will compete for prize money of $9 million.
Big footsteps to follow of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals 2015 from Brazilian winners Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca. Photocredit: Andreas Langreiter
Open events in Puerto Vallarta, Antalya and Doha launched the 2015/2016 season in October and November earlier this year. Those three events will be followed by the Kish Island Open in Iran from February 14-19, 2016.
The World Tour then travels to Brazil for the Maceio Open from February 23-28 and stays there for the first Grand Slam event in 2015/2016, which will be hosted by Rio de Janeiro from March 8-13. Of course, the Brazilian city will also host the much awaited Olympic beach volleyball tournament in August, to be held on Copacabana Beach.
After the Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam, Brazil will also host the Vitoria Open from March 15-20. That event will be followed by a second stop in Doha for the single-gender men’s Qatar Open to be held from April 3-8. The Qatar Open will be followed by two Open events in China, first in Xiamen from April 12-17, and then in Fuzhou from April 19-24. The last event of the month takes the world’s top teams back to Brazil for the Fortaleza Open from April 26-30.
See the full schedule here:
2015/2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Calendar
The month of May will feature three Opens, starting in Sochi, Russia (May 3-8), then moving to Antalya, Turkey (May 10-15) and Cincinnati, USA (May 17-22). The month will end with the second Grand Slam event in 2015/2016, which will be played in the Russian capital, Moscow (May 24-29).
Two further Grand Slam events will take place in June. The first will be organised in the city of Hamburg, Germany from June 7-12 – all events scheduled before June 13, including the Hamburg Grand Slam – will count towards the Olympic Ranking. The Grand Slam event in Germany will be followed by another in Poland at a venue to be confirmed, from June 14-19.
The end of the month of June will feature the first of three Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series in 2015/2016, part of the FIVB World Tour. Porec, Croatia will be the venue for the first from June 28 through to July 3. The Gstaad Major in Switzerland will follow from July 5-10. The third Swatch Major Series event will take place at the end of July in Klagenfurt, Austria from July 26-31.
The Olympic Games from August 5-21 will be followed by a further three events: the Long Beach Grand Slam in California, USA from August 23-28 and the Puerto Vallarta Open from October 11-16 in Mexico, while the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals are expected to take place in October - at a venue to be confirmed - and will serve as a final climax to what promises to be an exciting 2015/2016 World Tour. Venue and dates will be announced in due course.
The year ahead also includes a FIVB World Continental Cup Olympic Qualification in Sochi, Russia from July 5-10, which will serve as a last chance to qualify for two vacancies per gender for the beach volleyball event at the Rio Olympics. Three age-group World Championships complete the season’s list of events: the U21 World Championships will be played in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 11-16. Those championships will be followed by events in Cabo Frio, Brazil from July 12-17 (U17s) and Larnaka, Cyprus from July 26-31 (U19s).