Press release

London, Great Britain, August 2, 2012 – As Big Ben struck midnight and the sand settled on center court Thursday night after six days of pool play, the original field of 24 men’s teams was pared to 16 for Friday’s start of the single-elimination bracket phase at the London 2012 Olympic Games beach volleyball competition at Horse Guards Parade in central London.

A total 24 men’s beach volleyball teams from 19 countries started playing in London last Saturday in the purpose-built, sold-out 15,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the iconic Horse Guards Parade as the majestic venue also includes a portion of adjacent St. James Park in historic central London.

Four sessions will be held Friday with two matches in each (one per gender) for the first half of the round of 16 matches with the balance to be played on Saturday. The sessions are scheduled to start Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

With the round of 16 men’s matches split over two days, here is the schedule for Friday, Aug. 3 in the stadium at Horse Guards Parade:
10 a.m. - Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel vs. Switzerland’s Sebastian Chevallier/Sascha Heyer
1 p.m. - Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins vs. Norway’s Tarjei Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr
6 p.m. - Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai vs. USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers
9 p.m. - Spain’s Adrian Gavira Collado/Pablo Herrera vs. Brazil’s Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos

The schedule for the second half of the men’s round of 16 on Saturday, Aug. 4 will be:
10 a.m. - Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego vs. Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik
2 p.m. - Netherlands’ Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil vs. Switzerland’s Jefferson Bellaguarda/Patrick Heuscher
5 p.m. - Germany’s Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann vs. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslans Sorokins
10 p.m. - Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev/Konstantin Semenov vs. USA’s Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal

In the series history between the teams meeting on Friday, Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel won the only previous meeting with Switzerland’s Chevallier/Heyer, Norway’s Skarlund/Spinnangr lead the series with Latvia’s Plavins/Smedins, 2-1, the series between Italy’s Lupo/Nicolai and USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers is tied at 2-2 and Brazil’s Cunha/Ricardo have a 2-0 edge in previous matchups with Spain’s Gavira/Herrera.

In Saturday’s head-to-head history, Brazil’s Alison/Emanuel have a 7-4 margin over Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik, Holland’s Nummerdor/Schuil have won the only previous meeting with Switzerland’s Bellaguarda/Patrick Heuscher, Germany’s Brink/Reckermann have a 2-1 mark against Latvia’s Samoilovs/Sorokins, and Saturday will be the first meeting between Russia’s Prokopyev/Semenov and USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal.

For current information on the event, visit www.fivb.org.