The SWATCH-FIVB World Tour returns to Cagliari for the second-straight season and the fifth-time overall as the capital of the island of Sardinia. The 2005 SWATCH Challenger for men follows a 2004 women's event on this island in the Mediterranean west of Italy where Marie-Andree Lessard and Sarah Maxwell of Canada defeated Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Talita Antunes of Brazil for the gold medal.  Cagliari first international Beach Volleyball event was in 1999 when Brazilian tandem of Marcio Araujo and Benjamin Insfran captured the gold medal in their first of 46 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour events together for the Athens 2004 Olympians.

The Italian Challenger is the second of 16 scheduled challenger or satellite men's Beach Volleyball events sanctioned by the FIVB in 2005. The first event was held last month in Finland where Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilous of Latvia won the Turku stop.    Plavins and Samoilous defeated Andris Krumins and Rusias Sorokins 19-21, 21-18 and 15-12 in the 54-minute title match June 19. Ian Borges and Pedro Solberg Salgado of Brazil claimed the bronze medal by defeating Leonid Kalinine and Pavel Karpukhin of Russia 21-15, 19-21 and 15-12 in the 52-minute fourth-place match.

Past Cagliari Men's FIVB Events

Italy Challenger - Cagliari (6/25-27/99), $30,000
1. Marcio Araujo/Benjamin Insfran, Brazil, $4,000
2. Taichi Morikawa/Ko Ozaki, Japan, $3,200
3. Markus Egger/Bernhard Vesti, Switzerland, $2,600
4. Alessandro Rigo/Massimo Marino, Italy, $2,000
 

Italy Women's Challenger - Cagliari (7/24-25/04), $35,000

1. Marie-Andree Lessard/Sarah Maxwell, Canada, $5,100

2. Talita Rocha Antunes/Maria Clara Salgado Rufino, Brazil, $4,100

3. Daniela Gattelli/Lucilla Perrotta, Italy, $3,300

4. Judith Deister/Mireya Kaup, Germany, $2,500

Pictured (left to right) - Rocha Antunes, Salgado,  Lessard, Maxwell, Perrotta and Gattelli

CAGLIARI, ITALY (www.comune.cagliari.it)

Tourist attractions: for those who arrive from the water, the first impact with the main city of the region is Rome street, that runs parallel to the port dock and at which elegant buildings and long porches appear.

In the city centre, spectators deserve a visit the Roman Amphitheatre, the Cathedral of Saint Maria, the Tower of the Elephant, the Bastions of Saint Remy from which a splendid sight springs. The area of Cagliari occupies a prominent place in the island gastronomy. 

On the table: amongst the many specialties, the famous malloreddus campidanesi, sa fregola, sas panadas, traditional roast porceddu, the plates made up of  tuna, lobster spaghetti, the burrida, the cassola are very well rendered and covered with flour and fried sea anemones.

Typical products: bread carasau, the pecorino sardinian, the bottarga, the roast porceddu, the seadas, the vermentino, the cannonau, the liqueur of mirto and the sardinian acquavite (filu e ferro).