Lausanne, Switzerland, April 22, 2012—The inaugural men’s and women’s events of the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour were played this past week at the double gender US $380,000 Brasília Open at the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Quadrante 1, Brasília, Brazil.  This was the first of nine double gender events on the 2012 tour. In the women’s competition Chen Xue and Xi Zhang of China won their tenth FIVB SWATCH World Tour title together.  On the men’s side, Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won their 22nd FIVB SWATCH gold medal in an all United States gold medal match.  This week the men and women visit different continents from April 24-29.  The women play in Sanya, China while the men are in Myslowice, Poland.

2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Highlights
The 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour calendar is highlighted by an FIVB-record eight Grand Slam events along with the 2012 London Olympics as the international Beach Volleyball schedule starts in April and concludes in October. 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the first FIVB Beach Volleyball event held February 17-22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The gold medal was won by USA’s Sinjin Smith/Randy Stoklos. The men’s world tour began in 1989, the women’s in 1992. Smith/Stoklos were the champions of the inaugural season in 1989-90.
• In 2012, international beach volleyball events will visit 18 sites in 15 countries over a seventh-month period.
• With the 2012 world tour calendar featuring 13 women’s and 13 men’s events within the African, Asian, European and South American confederations, the FIVB SWATCH World Tour will offer US$6.32 million in prize money.
• Nine of the tournaments will be combined men’s and women’s events, including all eight Grand Slam stops.
• Women’s-only stops will be in China (Sanya), Finland (Aland) and Thailand (Bang Saen).
• Men’s only stops will be in Poland (Myslowice), Czech Republic (Prague) and Morocco (Agadir).
• The new Grand Slam event this year will be in China (Shanghai).
• The $4.8 million FIVB SWATCH World Tour Grand Slam series will also return to 2011 venues in China (Beijing), Russia (Moscow), Italy (Rome), Switzerland (Gstaad), Austria (Klagenfurt) and Poland (Stare Jablonki). The tour will also return for the first time since 2008 to Germany (Berlin).
• Klagenfurt and Gstaad have each staged 10 or more FIVB-sanctioned Beach Volleyball events.  Both sites have hosted the FIVB SWATCH World Championships with Klagenfurt in 2001 and Gstaad in 2007.
• The opening event on the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour calendar will be a double gender event in Brasília April 15-22 as the Brazilian capital will be celebrating its 52nd anniversary on the seventh day of competition.  During the April 21 Brasília celebration, crowds of more than 1-million will be attending various holiday activities around the SWATCH event. 
• The iconic Horse Guards Parade in central London will be the site of the London 2012 Olympic Games which will run from July 28 through August 9. A special Olympic test event for 24 women’s teams was held on the site last August with Brazil’s Liliane Maestrini/Angela Vieira defeating USA’s Jennifer Kessy/April Ross in the gold medal match.
• A total of 16 teams from each gender out of the 24 teams participating in the 2012 London Olympics, will qualifying through qualification rankings from the FIVB SWATCH World Tour. For the latest rankings, for men’s visit… http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/OlympicRanking_M.asp and for women’s visit http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/OlympicRanking_W.asp
• China will again stage three and Poland will once again present two FIVB SWATCH World Tour stops in 2012.
• The men’s international schedule will conclude in early October in Morocco (Agadir) while the women’s competition will end in late October in Thailand (Bang Saen).
• The international beach volleyball calendar will also feature world championships for players under the age of 21 and under the age of 19.  Larnaka, Cyprus will host the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH Youth World Championships July 11-14 for players under the age of 19. For the second consecutive year, Canada will host in Halifax, Nova Scotia Aug. 29-Sept. 2 the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH Junior World Championships for players under the age of 21. This will be the first time for Cyprus to host one of these age group FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Championships. The U-19 world championships in 2011 were held in Umag, Croatia before Canada hosted the U-21s in Halifax.
• IMG Sports Media will continue to have the exclusive distribution media rights for the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour. For the third straight year, the tour will exclusively use the Mikasa VLS 300 ball. It was introduced in 2009 in October and November at events in Sanya and Phuket
2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Men’s Leaders (through April 22)
Men (Team Rank, points)
1, Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, United States, 600
2, Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena, United States, 540
3, Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos, Brazil, 480
4, Adrian Gavira Collado/Pablo Herrera, Spain, 420
5, Evandro Goncalves/Harley Marques, Brazil, 360
5, Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany, 360
7, Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, Brazil, 300
7, Vitor Felipe/Moises Santos, Brazil, 300
9, Marcio Araujo/Pedro Salgado, Brazil, 240
9, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslans Sorokins, Latvia, 240
9, Jason Lochhead/Kirk Pitman, New Zealand, 240
9, Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal, United States, 240
13, Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl, Austria, 180
13, Andy Ces/Kevin Ces, France, 180
13, Sebastian Dollinger/Stefan Windscheif, Germany, 180
13, Geir Eithun/Iver Horrem, Norway, 180
17, Thomas Kunert/Lorenz Petutschnig, Austria, 120
17, Anders Lund Hoyer/Bo Soderberg, Denmark, 120
17, Renato "Geor" Gomes/Jorge "Gia" Terceiro, Georgia, 120
17, Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy, 120
17, Emiel Boersma/Daan Spijkers, Netherlands, 120
17, Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, Poland, 120
17, Alexander Likholetov/Serguei Prokopiev, Russia, 120
17, Inocencio Lario/Raul Mesa, Spain, 120

NOTE - The 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour champions will be determined by calculating the points for a team’s best 9 men’s and women’s finishes based on 75 percent of the 13 men’s and women’s events (Open, World Championship and Grand Slam events only) staged during season and rounded down.

Men (Team Rank, events, titles, US earnings)
1, Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, United States, 1, 1, $30,000
2, Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena, United States, 1, 0, $21,000
3, Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos, Brazil, 1, 0, $15,000
4, Adrian Gavira Collado/Pablo Herrera, Spain, 1, 0, $11,200
5, Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany, 1, 0, $9,100
5, Evandro Goncalves/Harley Marques, Brazil, 1, 0, $9,100
7, Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, Brazil, 1, 0, $7,600
7, Vitor Felipe/Moises Santos, Brazil, 1, 0, $7,600
9, Jason Lochhead/Kirk Pitman, New Zealand, 1, 0, $6,000
9, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslans Sorokins, Latvia, 1, 0, $6,000
9, Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal, United States, 1, 0, $6,000
9, Marcio Araujo/Pedro Salgado, Brazil, 1, 0, $6,000
13, Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl, Austria, 1, 0, $4,250
13, Sebastian Dollinger/Stefan Windscheif, Germany, 1, 0, $4,250
13, Geir Eithun/Iver Horrem, Norway, 1, 0, $4,250
13, Andy Ces/Kevin Ces, France, 1, 0, $4,250
17, Alexander Likholetov/Serguei Prokopiev, Russia, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, Poland, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Emiel Boersma/Daan Spijkers, Netherlands, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Inocencio Lario/Raul Mesa, Spain, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Renato "Geor" Gomes/Jorge "Gia" Terceiro, Georgia, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Anders Lund Hoyer/Bo Soderberg, Denmark, 1, 0, $2,800
17, Thomas Kunert/Lorenz Petutschnig, Austria, 1, 0, $2,800

2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Women’s Leaders (through April 22)
Women (Team Rank, points)
1, Chen Xue/Xi Zhang, China, 600
2, Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes, Brazil, 540
3, Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti, Italy, 480
4, Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca, Brazil, 420
5, Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig, Germany, 360
5, Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh, United States, 360
7, Madelein Meppelink/Sophie van Gestel, Netherlands, 300
7, Sanne Keizer/Marleen Van Iersel, Netherlands, 300
9, Louise Bawden/Becchara Palmer, Australia, 240
9, Vivian Cunha/Taiana Lima, Brazil, 240
9, Simone Kuhn/Nadine Zumkehr, Switzerland, 240
9, Jennifer Kessy/April Ross, United States, 240
13, Katrien Gielen/Liesbeth Mouha, Belgium, 180
13, Liliane Maestrini/Angela Vieira, Brazil, 180
13, Bibiana Candelas/Mayra Garcia, Mexico, 180
13, Vassiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiani, Greece, 180
17, Raquel Pellucci/Maria Clara Salgado, Brazil, 120
17, Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney, Canada, 120
17, Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Germany, 120
17, Ekaterina Khomyakova/Evgenia Ukolova, Russia, 120
17, Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez Steiner, Spain, 120
17, Takemi Nishibori/Satoko Urata, Japan, 120
17, Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, Germany, 120
17, Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Hanson, United States, 120

Brazil – Brasília, April 15-20, $US$190,000
1. Chen Xue/Xi Zhang, China, $30,000
2. Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes, Brazil, $21,000
3. Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti, Italy, $15,000
4. Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca, Brazil, $11,200
Gold – Xue/Zhang def. Maria/Talita, 21-17, 21-15 (38 minutes)
Bronze – Cicolari/Menegatti def. Juliana/Larissa, 21-14, 17-21, 15-13 (52)
MOP - Zhang
SWATCH Serve – Raquel Pellucci, Brazil, 82.2 km/h