Many of the world’s top women’s beach volleyball tandems are in Thailand as the 15-event 2011 women’s season ends with the sixth consecutive FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour season finale in Thailand.

The women’s season-finale of the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour schedule, the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, featuring 54 teams from 27 countries, begins with a single elimination qualification tournament on Wednesday to determine the final eight spots in the 32-team main draw which will be held next Wednesday through Saturday. The internationally televised semifinals and medal matches will be played Sunday as the winning pair shares the $30,000 first-place prizes.

Governor Augkaradacha’s extensive comments included, “Phuket is very happy to host such as an important event as the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, because international sporting events support the island’s tourist industry, by promoting a positive image of Phuket worldwide. On behalf of Phuket province, I would like to welcome all the beach volley teams and their supporters to Phuket and I hope that everyone will enjoy both the action on the courts and the many other attractions that Phuket has to offer visitors.”

Among the other speakers during the one-hour media conference in front of over 50 Thailand media personnel were Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, Director of Tourism of Thailand Phuket office, Thawee Thongcham, Mayor of Karon Municipality, Eam Thavornwongwongse, Director of Kata Group, Geoffrey Rowe, Tournament Director, and Yu Tsao, FIVB Technical Supervisor.

A total of 54 teams from 27 countries have entered the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT (as of October 31, 2011), including Australia (3 teams), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Brazil (3), Canada (4), China (3), Czech Republic (2), Finland (1), France (1), Georgia (1), Germany (2), Great Britain (2), Greece (1), Italy (3), Japan (3), Kazakhstan (4), Latvia (1), Malaysia (2), Mexico (1), Netherlands (3), Puerto Rico (1), Russia (1), Slovak Republic (1), Spain (2), Thailand (3), Ukraine (1), and United States (3).

Two former Phuket championship teams are leading the field into Thailand this year. USA’s two-time Phuket gold medal winners Jennifer Kessy/April Ross won in 2008 and 2009 while China’s Chen Xue/Xi Zhang captured the crown of the inaugural event in 2006. Last year, Kessy/Ross finished 13th in the tournament while Xue/Zhang had an injury forfeit ending the event with a ninth place final finish.

Thailand has three teams entered in this year’s tournament and all have been pre-seeded into the main draw as the host nation.  The three teams selected for the main draw are Kamoltip Kulna/Varapatsorn Radarong, Jarunee Sannok/Usa Tenpaksee and Tanarattha Udomchavee/Rumpaipruet. Numwong. Kulna/Radarong and Sannok/Tenpaksee both went undefeated this week in Phetchaburi, Thailand to lead Thailand’s women’s team to victory at the AVC Continental Cup zonal beach volleyball tournament of Southeast Asia.

The 2011 calendar features 15 women's and 14 men's events within all five FIVB confederations plus one special 24-team single-gender women’s test event held August 9-14 at London’s Horse Guards Parade, the venue for beach volleyball at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour is offering $7.64-million in prize money. Twelve of the tournaments were combined men's and women's events, including the World Championships and the six Grand Slam stops. The men’s tour concluded in October in Agadir Morocco.

The Phuket Thailand Open is being produced by Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd. of Bangkok in association with the FIVB and the Thailand Volleyball Association.

The Phuket Thailand Open will be the 232nd women’s event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill).  The first men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. There have been 271 men’s events in FIVB Swatch World Tour history.

For more information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org.