16/12/2011 22:00
World-class starting field for second edition of CEV indoor Satellite in Aalsmeer
CEV Beach Volleyball Challenger and Satellites
Aalsmeer, Netherlands, December 16, 2011. A stellar starting field will highlight the second edition of the CEV indoor Satellite that is set to take place this coming January 11-15 at “The Beach” in Aalsmeer, as the silver and bronze medalists plus the pair ranked fourth from the 2011 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final in Kristiansand have registered for the competition that will basically open the 2012 season.
After 26 teams had registered for the inaugural edition, this time a total of 46 duos completed the registration process for the tournament, including 4 out of the top 15 pairs from the world rankings.
Triple European champions Richard Schuil and Reinder Nummerdor will be the home stars there in Aalsmeer; after a difficult start their 2011 campaign was rounded out by a series of excellent results, i.e. a bronze medal at the European Championship Final in Kristiansand (Norway) followed by a second and first place claimed from the last two stops of the FIVB World Tour in The Hague and Agadir (Morocco). Schuil and Nummerdor were eventually the only European pair to claim a gold medal during the 2011 edition of the World Tour.
Very strong contenders for the final win are coming from Germany, with that country having registered a total of six teams for the tournament. 2011 European silver medalists Kay Matysik and Jonathan Erdmann enjoyed a very successful campaign this past summer and are already well known in Aalsmeer after they finished second last year at “The Beach” losing the final match to Richard Schuil and Jon Stiekema (pictured). David Klemperer/Eric Koreng is another top duo, currently ranked 15th in the world, and these guys have repeatedly finished among the top 10 in many international competitions, so they will also be among the top contenders for the podium in Aalsmeer.
Switzerland’s Patrick Heuscher and Jefferson Bellaguarda is also a world-class pair that this past summer lost the bronze medal final of the European Championship Final to Schuil/Nummerdor but their 2011 season was extremely successful with one silver and one bronze medal from Grand Slam tournaments included in the schedule of the FIVB World Tour. The bronze medalists from the first edition of the CEV Satellite in Aalsmeer, Turkey’s Selcuk Sekerci/Volkan Gögtepe, are also included in the starting field for this coming January.
Apart from Schuil and Nummerdor, the Netherlands will be represented in Aalsmeer by many other good duos. Emiel Boersma and Daan Spijkers went through quite many ups and downs this past summer, although they claimed a good fifth place as the World Tour stopped in The Hague. After winning the inaugural edition of the CEV indoor Satellite with Schuil, this time Jon Stiekema will team up with Christiaan Varenhorst, but another duo to watch out for is certainly Robert Meeuwsen/Alexander Brouwer, who made a real breakthrough this past August as they finished 5th at the European Championship Final in Kristiansand.
The honors of the home club, “The Beach”, will be defended by three duos, Sven Vismans/Marco Daalmeijer, Frank van den Outenaar/Dirk Boehlé and Jeroen Vismans/Kees Spil. Sven Vismans finished 9th last year in Aalsmeer with his former partner Stan van Laanen who is currently injured, while Marco Daalmeijer had joined the competition together with Richard de Kogel, who is now the trainer/coach of what is the first and only professional Beach Volleyball team in the Netherlands.
A detailed entry list for the 2012 CEV Satellite in Aalsmeer is available here; the tournament is set to start on Wednesday, January 11, with the Country Quota, followed by the qualification, while the Main Draw will open only on Friday, January 13.
Additional information, also about entry tickets, is available at www.beach.nl or via the Facebook page created for the event.
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