Press Release

LIANYUNGANG, China, May 20, 2004 - Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead from New Zealand celebrated their second surprise win in two days at the 30-team Qualification Tournament of the 2004 Swatch-FIVB World Tour Men's China Open here on Thursday.

Pitman and Lochhead, the 21st seeds in the Qualification Tournament who eliminated 12th-seeded Mario Silva and Miguel Xisto from Angola on Wednesday, beat fifth-seeded Canadians Conrad Leinemann and Richard Van Huizen 21-17 and 21-17 in 41 minutes Thursday morning to make the Main Draw of the third men's event on the 2004 Swatch-FIVB World Tour.

The 9th seeds Pedro Cunha and Rogerio Para from Brazil also made seed-breakthrough as they downed eighth-seeded Frenchmen Kevin Ces and Yannick Salvetti 21-9 and 21-18.

The other two tandems from France survived after the two-day win-or-die qualifications when Stephane Canet/Mathieu Hamel ousted Sergey Sinkevich/Oleg Kisselev from Kazakhstan 21-19 and 21-17 and Ogier Molinier/Guilherm Deulofeu defeated Hayato Kirihara/Shinpel Aoki of Japan 21-17 and 21-19.

Americans Todd Rogers and Sean Scott, the top seeds in the Qualification Tournament who had a bye on Wednesday, eased past South Africa's 16th seeds Gershon Rorich and Colin Pocock, 21-12, 21-18 for a berth in the Main Draw before fourth-seeded Kristian Kais and Rivo Vesik from Estonia brushed aside Agus Salim and Koko Darkuncoro of Indonesia 21-13 and 21-11 for "money" rounds.

Other teams advancing from the Qualification Tournament to the Main Draw of the $180,000 China Open included third-seeded Canadians John Child/Jody Allan Holden and Max Backer/Emiel Boersma of the Netherlands.

The 32-team Main Draw starts Friday morning with the finals scheduled for Sunday.

Following the Lianyugang event, the men's FIVB World Tour continues with a stop next week in Serbia and Montenegro (May 26-30). Other Olympic qualifying events prior to July 11 will be in Portugal, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and Canada.