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| Not Just Another Draw |
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Athens, Greece, August 20, 2004 - A potential semi-final match will happen two rounds earlier than expected as a pair of pool defeats have altered the Round of 16 lineup for the men's Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
Saturday's 3:30 p.m. match between second-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Marcio Araujo of Brazil and the third-seeded Laciga brothers (Martin and Paul) of Switzerland was projected as a potential semi-final meeting Monday.
However, the top half of the men's Olympic Beach Volleyball bracket doesn't get any easier as all five top-seeded teams will be playing against each other on the way to the Wednesday's medal match.
The winner of the Laciga-Brazilian match will face either top-seeded Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos of Brazil or Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud of Norway Sunday in the quarter-finals as there is a potential that the top three seeds could be eliminated before Monday's semi-finals.
And, don't forget that fourth-seeded Markus Dieckmann and Jonas Reckermann of Germany joined Emanuel/Ricardo and fifth-seeded Patrick Heuscher/Stefan Kobel of Switzerland as teams protecting their seeds for the top-half of the men's bracket.
Dieckmann and Reckermann, who lost to the Norwegians Thursday, play Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger of the United States Friday at 5:30 p.m. Heuscher and Kobel start the evening session at 8 p.m. against Joao Brenha and Luis Maia, the fourth-place finishers at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.
The bottom half of the men's bracket did not follow the Olympic seedings where the teams of Christoph Dieckmann/Andreas Scheuerplug of Germany (No. 2 seed), Javier Bosma/Pablo Herrera of Spain (No. 3) and Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde (No. 6) secured better seeds through pool play upsets. |
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Pool A