USA's Sean Rosenthal, middle, duels at the net with Russia's Konstantin Semenov Saturday as Rosenthal and Jake Gibb won to take the final spot in Monday's men's quarterfinals in Horse Guards Parade at the London 2012 Olympic Games

London, Great Britain, August 4, 2012 – With a dark cloudy London sky parting to provide plenty of sunshine for more raucous sold-out crowds and the gifted athletes battling on the special sand, the men’s quarterfinal matchups were determined Saturday as two teams from Brazil and one each from Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland and the United States have advanced on the road to the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games beach volleyball competition at Horse Guards Parade in central London.

The second half of the round of 16 men’s teams competed Saturday to finalize the field for the quarterfinal matches as the original field of 24 men’s teams is being reduced to eight Friday 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 July 28 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.

Advancing from three matches in pool play and one elimination round, teams earning a place in the quarterfinals are Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, Brazil’s Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos, Germany’s Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann, Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins, Netherlands’ Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil, Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel and USA’s Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal.

The men’s quarterfinal matches will be held on Monday in two sessions with two quarters in each session, the first starting at 6 p.m. and the second session for the final two quarterfinals starting at 10 p.m. The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals that will be held along with the women’s semifinals on Tuesday.

Monday four men’s quarterfinals for the stadium at Horse Guards Parade will start first at 6 p.m. with Brazil’s 2011 FIVB SWATCH World Champions and 2011 FIVB SWATCH World Tour champs Alison/Emanuel playing against Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel. In the FIVB SWATCH World Tour series between the two teams, Brazil’s Alison/Emanuel have won both meetings which were last year in the Aland (Finland) Open at the Gstaad (Switzerland) Grand Slam.

In the 7 p.m. quarterfinal, USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal will take on Latvia’s Plavins/Smedins.  In the international series between the two teams, USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal lead it 2-1 including winning the most recent match on July 20 at the Klagenfurt Grand Slam when the defeated Latvia’s Plavins/Smedins in three sets, 19-21, 21-16 and 15-10 in 53 minutes.

Starting the late evening session at 10 p.m. Monday will be Germany’s Brink/Reckermann, 2009 FIVB SWATCH World Champions vs. Brazil’s Cunha/Ricardo, Richardo a four-time Olympian. All veteran players on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour but with several teammates, they have only met twice, with Cunha/Ricardo winning both, including the most recent in the bronze medal match on June 11 at the Moscow Grand Slam, 21-19, 21-14 in 41 minutes.

In the final quarterfinal match at 11 p.m., Netherlands’ Nummerdor/ Schuil battling against Italy’s Lupo/Nicolai, who upset USA’s defending Olympic gold medalists Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers in the round of 16 on Friday.
The two teams have split the four matches on the world tour the Lupo, just 21, and Nicolai, only 23, winning the first two meetings and Nummerdor, 35, and Schuil, 39, winning the last two.  The most recent meeting won by Nummerdor/Schuil was in the gold medal match at the Beijing Grand Slam, 21-11, 21-16 in 31 minutes.

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

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