Barcelona 2008 Women's Open may 26-31
Spain hosts its first SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event since 2004 as Barcelona joins the calendar for the first time. Almeria, Cadiz, Mallorca, Marbella and Tenerife have hosted previous men’s events where Spain’s top finish was a 1995 silver medal for Javier Bosma and Sixto Jimenez in Tenerife. Women’s events have been held in Almeria, Gran Canaria, Meadrid and Mallorca. The top placement by a Spanish women’s team was a ninth by Monica Del Prado and Liliana Diaz at the 1992 Almeria event, the first-ever women's stop on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour. Brazilians have dominated the podium with 34 of the possible 63 men’s and women’s medals, including nine men’s and three women’s titles. The Lacigas (Martin and Paul) of Switzerland captured the most men’s titles with four gold medals at three different Spanish sites. Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar captured 2001 and 2002 Spanish titles in Gran Canaria and Mallorca, respectively. Spain has hosted women's FIVB Satellite events the past two seasons where teams from Portugal (Juliana Antunes/Sandra Castro, 2006 at Getxo) and the Netherlands (Marleen Van Iersel/Maloes Wesselink, 2007 at San Sebastiàn) have won gold medals. Barcelona is one of nine new sites in 2008 on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour calendar along with Adelaide (Australia), Guaruja (Brazil), Sanya (China), Prague (Czech Republic), Osaka (Japan), Myslowice (Poland) Moscow (Russia) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
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