2008 WUC Beach Volleyball: Competitions
July 3rd, 2008
Yesterday, Wednesday July 2nd, the first group phase took place. Within the men’s group tendencies already became apparent. The male teams from China, USA and the Ukraine were surprisingly strong. The German teams started smoothly into the tournament. The first group match against the beach volleyball exotics from the Oman was easy for Markus Böckermann (FH Kiel) and Tom Götz (HU Berlin) and they won in 18 minutes with 21:3 and 21:4. With the Chinese Pan/Zhang they also had favourites in their group. In the end the Chinese won the hard-fought match with 21:18 and 21:15. ‘The Chinese who used to be rather unknown in University Sports have developed and must be rated strongly at this tournament’, said Federal Talents Coach Ahmann. The two German teams should also be rated strongly if they were able to confirm their good performances of last season. The second German male team Sebastian Dollinger and Florian Lüdike (both Uni Kiel) won against the favoured team from Switzerland Prawdzic/Quadt with 22:20 and 21:14.
Regarding the women China’s development also showed. The other teams played very balanced so that the double elimination will be very suspenseful. Thereby the focus is on the traditionally strong beachvolleyball nations Brazil, Spain, USA and Germany. The host teams were able to compete with the rivals. The team with Frederike Fischer (Hamburger Fernhochschule) and Julia Großner (HU Berlin) lost the opening match tightly against the strong Chinese team Liu/Wang. However they won against Klopf/Penner from Austria in their second group game with 21:11 and 21:19. The team colleagues Ruth Flemig and Stefanie Hüttermann (both DSHS Köln) had a better start. They won their first two group matches clearly against the teams from New Zealand (21:9; 21:11) and Austria (21:16;21:17). ‘The men’s and women’s level of the World University Beach Volleyball Championship clearly rose in comparison to the last WUC at Cyprus. Numerous teams bring along top placements from the national series and international championships’, said Thorsten Hütsch, adh Sport Director. However the double elimination will show who will be able to win out over the other teams in the end.
