Can Europe prevail in 2007?

ST. PETERSBURG 2007 – St. Petersburg was the site of the country’s first major international Beach Volleyball event as the city on the Gulf of Finland hosted the 1994 Goodwill Games competition for both men and women.  A city of haunting magnificence, St. Petersburg is an imperial capital that seems to have been built as a monument to its own passing.  Less than three centuries have passed since Peter the Great began building the grand city, but it is difficult to visit its vast, crystalline squares and palaces without feeling the enormity of the gulf that separates that time from our own.  All of which, of course, makes St. Petersburg more evocative of Russia's past than any place except perhaps the Moscow Kremlin. This impression is only deepened by a more familiar acquaintance. The enigmatic homeliness of Peter's cottage and the city's placid canals may contrast with the brooding grandeur of the Winter Palace, but they share with it a graceful stillness that is difficult to forget.

Will Europe manage to break the Brazilian domination this year in the Gulf of Finland as the the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour returns to St. Petersburg for the third-straight year?  After taking all six medals and all eight “final four” finishes at the 2005 stop, Brazil could manage "only" two golds and one bronze in 2006, with Europe's men's teams hot on their heels. Most noteworthy was the bronze medal for the Dutch pair Jochem De Gruijter and Gijs Ronnes, who netted their country's first medal in the Tour's 20-year history.

Men - The Russian Volleyball Federation continues to develop Beach Volleyball as the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour returns to St. Petersburg, the site of the first Goodwill Games in 1994.  Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos captured a three-set gold medal match from reigning SWATCH-FIVB World Champions Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magelhaes in the 2005 finale as Brazil captured all three podium spots.  Brazilians Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira won the first Moscow gold medal in 1998 by defeating Martin Conde and Eduardo Martinez of Argentina in the finals.  Portugal’s Joao Brenha and Luis Maia captured the 1999 Moscow stop by beating Zé Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos of Brazil in the finals.

 

PAST RUSSIA MEN’S PODIUM PLACEMENTS

Total Medals - Brazil 6, USA 2, Argentina 1, Germany 1, Norway 1, Portugal 1

Women - With a combined age of 90, the 2005 women’s St. Petersburg gold medal match featured the “youngest” final in SWATCH-FIVB World Tour history as Juliana Feilsberta Silva (22) and Larissa Franca (23) defeated Renata Riberio (23) and Talita Antunes (22) for the title.  St. Petersburg also hosted the 1994 Goodwill Games, which was the first of three Goodwill Games appearances for beach volleyball with other events in New York (1998) and Brisbane, Australia (2001).  Natalya Belousova and Mariya Kopylova posted a seventh at the 1994 Goodwill Games for Russia, whose best finish in 2006 was ninth for Uryadova-Shiryaeva.