European top teams are hungry for more!
Luxembourg/Zurich, April 25, 2008. The kick-off tournament of the NESTEA European Championship Tour on Grand Canary clearly showed how competitive the continental Beach Volleyball scene is. Now Europe's elite moves to St. Pölten for the Austrian Masters.
The 2008 beach volleyball season began with an exclamation point. The European crème de la crème of that discipline served and spiked on the Playa del Ingles on Grand Canary. One thing is clear after the season-opening weekend: this kick-off tournament has everyone hungry for more. Hinnerk Femerling, Managing Director at the Zurich based agency Global Sports Marketing that organizes and markets the NESTEA European Championship Tour was visibly delighted by the first rendezvous of the continent's top teams this season. "The standard of beach volleyball play in Europe is very high", Femerling stresses, "and the matches in the men's tournament were especially high-class and hard-fought”.
The verve and the passion the athletes invest into their matches may also be due to the Olympic challenge. "It is self-evident that all the teams got into great physical shape over the winter", Femerling remarks. Now they have to confirm their good early season form at the next stop of the tour in St. Pölten (Austria). The 100,000 Euro Austrian Masters will be played from May 9-12. The main spotlight will be on the home teams. In the men's competition Clemens Doppler and Peter Gartmayer have made big plans for their home court performance. Doppler/Gartmayer are the undisputed stars of Austrian Beach Volleyball since winning the European gold medal in Valencia last year.
This year, however, they have not yet been able to play up to their potential. Doppler/Gartmayer finished ninth at the Spanish Masters - a disappointing result for a team of their caliber. On the other hand, Sara Montagnolli-Ebenbichler and Sabine Swoboda caused quite a stir in Grand Canary, as they reached the final in the women's tournament where they were defeated by the German duo Goller/Ludwig. In St. Pölten the Austrians want to replicate their success in front of their home fans. The sibling duo consisting of Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger, who finished 13th on Grand Canary, are also hoping to receive an extra boost from their own fans.
Every team's focus in St. Pölten will be to collect ranking list points to qualify for the season final tournament. The wheat will be separated from the chaff at the seventh and final tour stop at the newly named Season Masters Final in Sochi (Russia). The eight best men's and women's teams there will play for the title of smart European ranking leader - a championship crowned with a total of four brand new smart for two.
But that is not the only reason the final stop of the NESTEA European Championship Tour 2008 is particularly attractive. Due to the smaller and more exclusive starter's field, the qualified teams will receive a substantial increase in prize money. The winners of the newly established Season Masters Final will therefore take home 17,000 €. In their efforts to further enhance and dramatize the final tournament the makers of the tour were inspired by their colleagues in the field of tennis. There the highest ranked teams have celebrated their season showdown for many years with great success. Heinz Schurtenberger, Chairman at GSM sees that new competition format of the final tournament as "an atractive innovation. We have planned to male the final tournament a special event for quite some time and the Season Masters Final offers the perfect opportunity to be a new highlight on the tour calendar."
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