Official Bulletin no. 14 april 2007

Edition in English

www.fivb.org

fÉDÉRatiOn inteRnatiOnale De VOlleYBall

Chinese Taipei made it through to the final round of the World Championships against the odds, finishing better than 2007 Grand Prix rivals Poland and Domin-ican Republic in the process.

The European contingent in 2007 will be joined by the Netherlands, who also put in a respectable performance at the World Championships, finishing one place ahead of the mighty USA. Avital Selinger’s girls complete the quartet of European teams that includes World Champions Russia, 2006 Grand Prix bronze medalists Italy and Poland.

The NORCECA delegation remains unchanged with defending champions

in this issueVolleyball•WorldGrandPrix2007•WorldLeague2007Beach Volleyball•WorldTour2007Preview•NewBeachheadcoachfor

BritishVolleyballConfederations•CEVIndesitFinalsTechnical & Development•VCP2007Calendars•CoursesandSeminars

April-May•FIVBGlobalCalendar

April-May

In 2007, one of the surprise packages from the last World Championships in Japan will get a chance at World Grand Prix action as Chinese Taipei becomes one of the 12 teams gunning for the title at the FIVB’s annual international women’s competition.

Brazil on course for a fourth consecutive title and Cuba, Dominican Republic and U.S.A. looking to make their mark.

new teams from three continents for the 2007 World Grand Prix

Thailand forfeited their place in the com-petition after the government’s decision to field their best Volleyball team at this year’s Universiade, which will be held on home turf in Bangkok. Debutantes Kazakhstan, who finished level with the Dominican Republic in the Worlds, will replace them and join Chinese Taipei and Japan in the battle to join hosts China in the final round in Ningbo.

Pools composition & calendarDATE CITY/TEAMS CITY/TEAMS CITY/TEAMS

Week 1: August 3-5 2007

POOl a: Tokyo JAPAN

JaPancuBaDOMinican RePuB.KaZaKHStan

POOl B:Verona ITALY

italYBRaZilnetHeRlanDScHineSe taiPei

POOl c:Rzeszow POLAND

POlanDRuSSiau.S.a.cHina

Week 2: August 10-12 2007

POOl D:Tokyo JAPAN

JaPanBRaZilnetHeRlanDScHineSe taiPei

POOl e:Khabarovsk RUSSIA

RuSSiacuBau.S.a.KaZaKHStan

POOl f:Hong Kong CHINA

italYcHinaDOMinican RePuB.POlanD

Week 3: August 17-19 2007

POOl G:Osaka JAPAN

JaPanRuSSiaPOlanDKaZaKHStan

POOl H:Taipei CHINESE TAIPEI

cHineSe taiPeiBRaZilDOMinican RePuB.italY

POOl i:Macau CHINA

cuBacHinanetHeRlanDSu.S.a.

Week 4: FINALS August 22-26 2007

ningbo, cHinaChina and the top five ranked teams after the Preliminary Roundswill qualify for the Final Round

The Netherlands against Japan at the 2006 World Championships

2 fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

Volleyball

Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, will be the venue for the World Women’s Junior Volleyball Championship

VollEybAll mEn & womEn

After the recent inspectionbyFIVBofficialstotheven-ue for the World Women’sJuniorVolleyballChampion-

ship,itisdecidedthatthecompetitionsitenowshifts fromSuphan.Buri toNakhonRatchasima,alsoinThailand.

Since the Silaparcha Gymnasium in Su-phan Buri, which already served as the main competition venue for this champi-onship in 2003, is not ready for the pres-tigious tournament, the Volleyball Associ-ation of Thailand and the host nation alike recently announced that the venue will shift from Suphan Buri to Nakhon Ratch-asima, a distance of some 250 kilometres from Bangkok, the capital city.

The FIVB officials and the Volleyball As-sociation of Thailand representatives in-spected The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall, a mega shopping centre in the Northeastern province, which already served as the competition arena for sever-al major tournaments including the Asian Senior Women’s Championship, the World

Grand Prix and the Princess Cup. The in-spection trip to the optional arena was very satisfactory, with the venue meeting all necessarily required standards.

The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima used to serve as the main spot for hosting sev-eral activities including live concerts, ex-hibitions and sports competitions which included the afore-mentioned Volleyball tournaments.

Nakhon Ratchasima’s residents also have a real passion for sports.

Whenever a big sporting tournament is held in the province, a large number of home crowds will throng into the com-petition venue to cheer on their favourite players.

According to VAT’s secretary-general Shanrit Wongprasert, aside from the 4,000-seater MCC Hall within The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima, a newly constructed gym-nasium with a seating capacity of 2,000 will also be used as another venue for

the world class tournament.

“The FIVB has al-ready approved the condition and standards of the competition venue in Nakhon Ratchasima af-ter we informed them in detail why the venue had to shift from Suphan Buri to Nakhon Ratchasima”, Shanrit said.

He added that the 2,000-seater gymna-sium within the 300th Anniversary Sports Complex in Nakhon Ratchasima, which will serve as the battleground for the SEA Games competition in December, will be used as the optional arena, while four training venues consist of the Municipal Gymnasium, Ratchasima Vittaya Gymna-sium and two more at Assumption School and Maree Vittaya School.

“We are very fortunate that the FIVB of-ficials expressed satisfaction over their inspection to the competition sites. The World Women’s Junior Volleyball Cham-pionship will now take place in Nakhon Ratchasima and not Suphan Buri,” he concluded.

Héctor Soto and Carlos Beltránrecipients of ASES Awards

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Héctor‘Picky’Soto,thestel-lar attacker of the PuertoRican Men’s Volleyball Na-tionalTeam,washonoured

asthe2006MenAthleteoftheYear,by

ASESAwardsofthePuertoRicoSportMuseum.

Also Mr. Carlos Beltrán, President of the Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation and

new member of the FIVB Board of Admin-istration, was the recipient for the second consecutive year of the Executive of the Year plaque.

After excellent seasons last year with the Tiscali Cagliari club of the Italian League and the San Juan Beach Boys of the Puer-to Rican Superior League, Soto joined the

National Team to comply with the international commitments.

He played a key role for Puerto Rico in winning the gold medal with a historic victory in straight sets over Cuba in the final of the Men’s Volleyball at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Soto was elected as the Most Valu-able Player of the regional event. He was also elected best scorer of the Men’s World Championship and helped to qualify Puerto Rico at the twelfth position of the 24-team event.

Mr. Beltrán has been a dedicated director in maintaining alive the development of Volleyball both locally and internationally. The organization of Beltrán and his vision for reaching big achieve-ments for Puerto Rico, has made of him an example of leadership in the sport of the island.

Soto, who was elected best scorer, and Beltrán posing with the 2006 World Championships mascots

�fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

news

Italy and Germany dominate the 2006-20007 Indesit European Champions’ League

VollEybAll mEn & womEn

Foppapedretti Bergamoclaimed their fifth title inthe Women’s Indesit Euro-pean Champions’ League,

beatingDinamoMoscowfromRussiainarollercoasterfinalwhichwasde-cided in the tiebreak setandattend-edbyover6000spectatorsinZurich,SwitzerlandonMarch25.

The determination of both teams forced a tiebreak and the fifth and deciding set was nothing for weak nerves. They swapped the lead until at 10-10 Bergamo strove ahead, securing their second Champions’ League ball (15-11). The bronze medal was won by Spar Tenefife Marichal (ESP) who beat Final Four host Voléro Zurich (SUI) in straight sets after just over an hour of play.

But the highlight of the season was defi-nitely the Men’s League Final Four in Moscow, Russia, from 31 March to 1 April. VfB Friedrichshafen (GER) beat 2005 ti-tleholder Tours VB (FRA) 3:1 in the final. Stelian Moculescu’s team have finally reached their long awaited goal, beating some of Europe’s strongest teams along the way like defending champion Sisley Treviso (ITA). The Germans took the lead right away, at-tacking more efficiently than their French opponents and proved unstoppable, win-ning in four sets. The bronze medal was won by Final Four host Dinamo Moscow who beat Italian Lube Banca Marche Mac-erata in straight sets. On this occasion, the CEV also crowned Europe’s 2006 Best Volleyball and Beach Volleyball players. The trophies were

handed over by CEV Pres-ident Mr. André Meyer, Senior Vice President Mr. Philip Berben, as well as Vice Presidents Mrs. Riet Ooms and Ms. Banu Can. Matey Kaziyski (Bulgaria) and Lioubov Sokolova (Russia) were crowned Best Volleyball Players and Christoph Dieck-mann (Germany) and Natalia Uryadova (Rus-sia) Best Beach Volleyball Players.

The venue for the2007WorldLeagueFinals has beenconfirmed to Po-land, Katowice,andat therequestof Italy, Rome willhostthe2008World

League Finals. Welcoming the news,FIVB President Dr. Rubén Acosta H.said that “Poland has long pursued the right to host the World League Fi-nal and show the world the energetic spectators who religiously follow their team all over the globe. We look for-ward to the full house anticipated by the organizers for the five days of the event.”

There will be some tough competition in the Final Round, when the winners of the four pools, Poland as the host country and a wild card team (one of the second place teams to be decided) will converge

individual awardsWomenMVP: Angelina Grün (Foppapedretti Bergamo)Best Scorer: Virginie De Carne (Voléro Zurich)Best Server: Ekaterina Gamova (Dinamo Moscow)Best Spiker: Francesca Piccinini (Foppapedretti Bergamo)Best Blocker: Anastasia Belikova (Dinamo Moscow)Best Libero: Esther Lopez (Spar Tenerife Marichal)Best Setter: Eleonora Lo Bianco (Foppapedretti Bergamo)Best Receiver: Milena Rosner (Spar Tenerife Marichal) MenMVP: Jochen Schöps (VfB Friedrichshafen)Best Scorer: Hichem Guemmadi (Tours VB)Best Server: Matey Kaziyski (Dinamo Moscow) Best Spiker: Alessandro Paparoni (Lube Banca Marche Macerata)Best Blocker: Alexander Volkov (Dinamo Moscow)Best Libero: Markus Steuerwald (VfB Friedrichshafen)Best Setter: Loïc De Kergret (Tours VB)Best Receiver: Lukas Divis (VfB Friedrichshafen)

final round WomenFoppapedretti Bergamo (ITA) - Dinamo Moscow (RUS) 3:2 (25-18, 19-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-11)Bronze medal matchSpar Tenerife Marichal (ESP) - Voléro Zurich (SUI) 3:0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-23)

final round MenTours VB (FRA) - VfB Friedrichshafen (GER) 1:3 (20-25, 24-26, 25-23, 19-25)Bronze medal matchDinamo Moscow (RUS) - Lube Banca Marche Macerata (ITA) 3:0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-18)

on Katowice from 11-15 July to battle it out for a share of the USD 20 million prize money.

Polish Volleyball Fed-eration President Miro-slav Przedpelski said:

“It is an honour and big pleasure for the Polish Volleyball Federation to entertain the Fi-nal Round of the 2007 World League. We will do our best to make our guests comfortable. We have the best audience all over the world and I am convinced that these Finals will be unforgettable.”

This is the second time that the World League Finals will be held in

Poland to host the Final Round of the 2007 World League

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FIVB President Dr. Rubén Acosta H. presents Brazil’s captain Ricardo with the winner’s trophy

Poland. It is certain that Poland will pull out all the stops in order to stage the best event ever. Italy on its side is always pre-paring the 2008 World League Finals as part of its preparation for the 2010 Volley-ball Men’s World Championship.

The 2006-07 Indesit champions Bergamo with CEV President Mr. André Meyer

4 fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

beach Volleyball

British Volleyball announces new head Beach Volleyball coach

bEAch VollEybAll mEn & womEn

Kenya and Uganda crowned kings of Uganda’s first international Beach Volleyball tournament

bEAch VollEybAll mEn & womEn

For the first time everUganda celebrated an in-ternationalbeachvolleyballtournament at Lido Beach

ResortEntebbewithKenyaandUgan-dasharingfinalthetitles.

The event attracted four teams from Rwanda, 4 teams from Kenya and 24 teams from host Uganda. Rwanda could only manage to reach the quarterfinal stage in the women’s category with De-nyse Mukarukundo and Aline Mutabazi who lost against Kenya’s Eunice Maiyo and Doris Muyekho 12-21, 18-21.

Kenya’s Olympic national team Captain Dorcas Ndasaba paired with Margaret In-dakala outwitted Uganda’s team of Sophy Nanyonga and Shilla Omuriwe in the final, winning in straight sets 21-14, 21-13.

While in the men’s category the final were Uganda’s team, Jeff Lwalanda and Law-rence Yakan who defeated the Kenyan pair Patrick Owino and Jason Maina in straight sets 21-17, 21-18.

The sponsor offered over 3 million shil-lings in awards including cash and tro-phies to the best three teams in either category.

National Chairman Kenya Beach volley-ball Council, Ms. Patricia Scott, and Ugan-da Volleyball Federation President Mr. Nason Bwesigye presided over the closing ceremony.

The international tournament will be held every December, and next year the Uganda National Federation will final-ize the application for recognition by the

African Volleyball Confederation as an official regional qualifier tourna-ment to world competitions.

BritishVolleyballannouncedtheappointmentofMatthewGrinlaubsasHeadCoachforthe GB Beach Programme,

tobebasedatBathUniversity.

Grinlaubs, 35, born in New Zealand, was based in Brisbane Australia during his successful playing career. Matt played on numerous international events in both

Volleyball and Beach Volley-ball, playing Beach Vol-leyball on the AVP Tour, FIVB World Series and even rep-resented his country at the Sydney Olym-

pics in 2000. As a Nationally accredited Volleyball coach, Matt has had several ac-colades. His experience ranges from the Australian Under-21s World Champion-ship Coach, Queensland Academy of Sport Head Coach and Team Australia Beach Volleyball Programme Manager. Matt says he’s excited to be involved in the British Programme and working with players from all the home nations “For athletes from a non-traditional Volleyball country to be successful in Beach Volleyball it is imperative that athletes do more than the ‘traditional training’. I have the abil-ity to combine the expertise of a number of people to provide the best possible pro-gramme for elite athletes.”

Richard Callicott, Chairman of British Volleyball said “I am delighted to have appointed Matt who will bring a real un-

derstanding of the task we face. He will be a real asset for our Beach Programme. He impressed us during his interview and demonstrated that there will be real op-portunities for prospective beach players to show what they can do and how com-mitted they are. We will be using the Eu-ropean Tour and the FIVB World Tour to assess our strengths and I am confident that Matt will be able to significantly im-prove these players. The University of Bath facilities are due for completion in the next 8 weeks, we can at last start to build something really exciting.”

Wayne Coyle, Programme Manager ex-tended his congratulations on the appoint-ment, “It’s fantastic that Matt is on board with the British Programme and we are all looking forward to the challenges and developments ahead”.

Matt Grinlaubs

BeachVolleyball

News...Paul laciga says good-bye to Beach VolleyballThe Swiss professional Beach Vol-leyball player Paul Laciga will end his 15-year career in 2007. The Beach Volleyball World Champion-ships in Gstaad will be the last in-ternational tournament that he will compete in.

The 37-year-old player finishes an extraordinary career where he ac-cumulated seven international ti-tles, 5 of them obtained in the World Tour. The gold medals he won in the World Tour were in the Argentinean Open of Mar del Plata in 1998 and in the Spanish Opens of Tenerife in 2000, Cadiz in 2002 and Majorca in 2004. He also obtained the first place in 1997 in the Beach Volley-ball Challenger at Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, and the European Beach Volleyball Championship in 1999.

With his brother, Martin Laciga, Paul played 119 international tour-naments including two Olympic Games and four World Champion-ships. They played together from 1995 to 2004, then Paul Laciga changed partner and played with Sascha Heyer.

A special exhibit on the career of Paul Laciga will be held in Gstaad during the Beach Volleyball World Championship to mark this special occasion. This will be presented by means of pictures, objects, texts and video sequences.

There are plans to make this tournament an official qualifier to world competitions

�fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

SwATch FIVb world Tour 2007

SWATCH FIVB World Tour 2007The road to Beijing 2008 begins

bEAch VollEybAll mEn & womEn

Everythingisreadyforthe2007sea-sonof theSWATCHFIVBWorldTour,thisyear’sschedulefeaturesthe2007SWATCH FIVB World ChampionshipsinJulyatGstaad,Switzerland,alongwith four grand slam events France,Norway, Germany and Austria. Thewomen’s SWATCH schedule also in-cludes new events in Finland, Korea,Norway and Singapore. The men’snew events are in Bahrain, Finland,Indonesia and Norway. Fourteen ofthemen’sstopswillbecombinedwithwomen’sevents.

While the USD 1-million SWATCH FIVB World Championships this July (24-29) in Gstaad, Switzerland, is the featured event on this year’s international schedule, the Olympic qualifying process makes every competition ‘special’ for the world’s elite Beach Volleyball players. Grand slam events in Paris, Stavanger, Berlin and Kla-genfurt will also provide opportunities for a team to improve their standings for the Beijing 2008 Summer Games.

With China guaranteed a spot in the Bei-jing competition as the host country, the remaining 23 berths will be determined by a team’s best eight point finishes on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour from the start of the 2007 season in Shanghai, China (May 1-6) through July 20, 2008.

Men’s events

The 2007 season will also be the most competitive in FIVB men’s Beach Volley-ball history with more events (19) and prize money (USD 4,375,000).

Since the end of the 2002 season, every men’s team on the international Beach Vol-leyball circuit has been chasing Brazilian legends Emanuel Rego and Ricardo San-

tos for the top spot on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour. Moreover, with the start of a 21st season of international competition approaching the reigning SWATCH FIVB World championships tandem of Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luiz Magalhaes will also be a target when the Brazilian pair defend their title this July in Switzerland.

Since the 2004 season when Emanuel and Ricardo captured the Athens gold medal after winning all seven Olympic matches as the No. 1-ranked team, Brazilians have continued to dominate the SWATCH FIVB

World Tour by winning 19 of the past 29 international men’s competition. The teams of Emanuel/Ricardo (11 gold med-als in 2005 and 2006) and Marcio Araujo/Fabio (seven titles) have finished 1-2 in the season rankings both years.

Women’s events

Juliana (23 years old) and Larissa (25) from Brazil will be starting their fourth SWATCH season together with 14 gold medals in 38 FIVB starts with 30 podium placements and 31 ‘final four’ finishes. After winning one event in 2004 and gathering the silver medal at the 2005 SWATCH FIVB World Championships, Ju-liana and Larissa captured six gold med-als in 2005 and seven titles last season with USD 367,200 in earnings, 12 podium placements, 13 ‘final four’ finishes and a 73-8 match mark.

Although not playing a full international schedule since 2002, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are still the team to beat as the 2007 SWATCH FIVB World Tour schedule features the most wom-en’s events (18) and prize money (USD 4,175,000) since the start of the Beach Volleyball circuit in 1992. May-Treanor and Walsh, who have been competing together since 2001, have captured the past three major international women’s Beach Volleyball events without suffering a defeat.

However, the 2007 SWATCH FIVB World Championships will present new chal-lengers from Brazil and China for the gold medal won by May-Treanor and Walsh in 2003 on Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro and in 2005 on the Schlossplatz in Berlin. In between, the Americans captured the Athens 2004 Olympic gold medal by de-feating Brazil’s Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede in the finals.

Reigning Olympic champions Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos from Brazil want to get another World Tour title

Kerry Walsh and Misty May-Treanor from the USA are one of the teams to beat

� fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

Once again the Volleyballfamily has reasons to beproud of Kenya after Af-rican Women’s Volleyball

Club Championships title holdersKCB (Kenya Commercial Bank) wascrowned sports teamof the year forthesecondconsecutiveyear.

The team, which is currently coached by former national team Assistant Coach

confederations

Kenya Commercial Bank crowned Sports Team of the Year in Kenya

VollEybAll womEn

Paul Bitok beat a star-studded field which included athletics and swimming to take the top position after judges considered their performance during the Club Cham-pionships held in Mauritius last year in which they beat Egyptian side Al Ahly in the finals after upsetting defending cham-pions Kenya Pipeline in the semi-finals.

Speaking after receiving the conveted trophy, Bitok said that was one of their

greatest moments for the youthful team considering the fact that they were com-peting against athletics team which has been very consistent in Kenya.

“I feel so proud of my players for bringing glory to the team and KCB as a bank. I am at the same time so grateful to the man-agement of KCB for the support which they have given the team over the years,” said Bitok who was flanked by the Team Manager David Kimosop who is also the President of Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) Nairobi Branch and Judith Odhia-mbo from KCB Corporate Affairs.

“After being crowned 2006 Sports Team of the Year in Kenya, this is a warning to our opponents that come to the Club Champi-onships this year we are going to demol-ish our opponents mercilessly,” said Bitok who will soon be naming the KCB squad who will proceed to prepare for the de-fense of the continental title.

The KVF President Waithaka Kioni who was present during the occasion con-gratulated KCB for their achievement and challenged other clubs in the country to emulate the bankers who have performed magnificently despite the fact that the team is composed of young players.

Serbian head coach Jovcia Cvitkovic has a very good knowledge of Iranian Volleyball

The Iranian Volleyball Fed-eration announced the ap-pointmentoftwonewheadcoaches:JovciaCvitkovicfor

theyouthnationalteamandMostafaKarkhaneh for the junior nationalteam.

Serbian Jovcia Cvitkovic, formerly head coach of the junior national Volleyball team, started with the boys’ youth nation-al team in early March. His main aim will

New appointments for Iran junior and youth national teams

VollEybAll mEn

be to lead his team to the coming Asian Championship in May which is also a qualifying tournament for the next Youth World Championships in August. The Ser-bian head coach believes that “by unity and collaboration we can overcome all difficulties”.

As for experienced new junior national team head coach Mostafa Karkhaneh, he previously helped the Iranian junior team win the Asian Junior Championships

twice and led the Iranian team to win the fifth place in 1999 and 2001 at the Asian Senior Volleyball Championships.

In 1997 and 2003 he was also the head coach of the Iranian team at the Junior World Championships, and with him Iran finished second at the Youth World Cham-pionship in 2001.

He is also in charge of the Iranian army team in the World military championship. Now his main task will be to lead his team in the upcoming 14th Junior Volleyball World Championship which will be held in Morocco in July.

Mostafa Karkhaneh has been head coach of the senior, junior and youth national teams

KCB was elected Sports Team of the Year in 2005 and 2006

7fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

Technical & Development

The2007VolleyballCooperationPro-grammetookoffearlythisyearwiththe first course taking place on theislandofMauritiuswhere theorgan-izers even had to overcome severestorms that delayed the course forthree days. However the organisersmanaged to overcome the suddendifficultieswith theweatherand thecourseendedsuccesfully.

This is duly the spirit of the Volleyball Co-operation Programme to overcome obsta-cles in the environment itself by ensuring true grassroot development.

This year’s Volleyball Cooperation Pro-gramme will spread the FIVB development objectives in Africa, Asia, South America and in the Norceca region.

The Volleyball Cooperation Pro-gramme provides National Fed-erations with qualified instructors who travel worldwide to visit those National Federations that need to improve their structure and the performance of their players.

The first wave of our Volleyball Cooperation Programme has al-ready reached safely Mauritius but the aim is to spread our mis-sion and our objective is to be in all Continents before the year is over. Let´s keep the ball flying.

Successful refereeing and coaches course in Niger for Men’s African Clubs Champions Championship

DEVEloPmEnT

Following the successfulrefereeing and coachescourses in Niger in theframeworkoftheirprepara-

tiontohosttheprestigious2007Men’sAfrican Clubs Champions Champion-shipinNiamey,Niger,19-28April,theNigerianMinisterofYouthandSports,Mr.AbdoulRahamaneSeydouheldapress conference together with theNiger Volleyball Federation (Fenivol-ley)President,Mr.AmadaSidiyanetoevokethelastpreparationstohostthecompetitionandgivetheparticipantsofthecoursestheircertificates.

The Minister expressed his satisfaction with both courses results and the prepa-rations done to host this important event and declared his full support to make the African Championship one of the best in history.

A bright year ahead for the VCP

DEVEloPmEnT

The course was instructed by the FIVB In-structor Jean-Claude Baccus and directed by French expert Olivier Lardier who was sent by the French Volleyball Federation in the programme of their support to Afri-ca. Both expressed their satisfaction with

the results of the course and the level of the 27 participants.

“We are happy with the full support of all the authorities of the country before the big competition we will be hosting in April, especially the Minister of Youth and sports Mr. Abdoul Rahamane Seydou who did a lot to bring this competition to full success,” said Fenivolley President, Ama-da Sidiyane.

The participants in the course

NORCECA’s International Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Clinics

VollEybAll mEn & womEn

NORCECA’s 3rd Internation-al Volleyball Clinic and 1stInternational Beach Volley-ballClinicforPhysicalEdu-

cationTeachers,CoachesandPlayers,held in the Dominican Republic onMarch3,werearesoundingsuccess.

Both Clinics were organized by the FIVB Regional Volleyball Development Centre and were sponsored by the NORCECA Confederation, the Sports Ministry and the National Institute of Physical Educa-tion of the Dominican Republic on the oc-casion of the annual meetings of the Com-missions of the NORCECA Confederation in Santo Domingo.

Among the international coaches who were in charge of these Clinics were Eu-genio George (Cuba), Ed Drakich (Canada) and Christopher St John Smith (USA).

A record of 130 Physical Education from the Dominican Republic and the British Virgin Islands participated in the 3rd Vol-leyball Clinic and 50 coaches, physical education teachers and athletes from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Gua-temala took part in the 1st Beach Volley-ball Clinic.

At the end the Clinics, and due to the big support and great number of participants, it was decided that they would be held for two days next year instead of one, and with the support of high technical level athletes who could perform demonstrations.

Christopher St-John Smith was one of the international coaches in charge of the Clinics

All Contributions Welcome!Please send your comments and articles by e-mail to:press@fivb.orgor by mail / fax to:Fédération Internationale de Volleyball Avenue de la Gare 12 CH-1001 Lausanne - SwitzerlandTel : +41 (21) 345 35 35 Fax: +41 (21) 345 35 45

� fiVB World Volley news no.14 April 2007

World Volley News • Official Bulletin of the FIVB • Av. de la Gare 12 • CH-1001 Lausanne • Printed in Switzerland • FIVB founded in 1947 • Pres. Dr. Rubén Acosta H.Tel. + 41 21 345 35 35 • Fax + 41 21 345 35 45 • Web Site : www.fivb.org • E-mail : press@fivb.org • Editor : Communication Department • No. 14 • April 2007

calendars

DATES EVENT COUNTRY CONF. M/W

2007 Global Calendar - Competitions and Events - Volleyball and Beach Volleyball

April 1-15 22nd African Cup of Clubs Champions Egypt CAVB WApril 6-8 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Dominican Republic NORCECAApril 10-15 U-18 European Championships Final round Brno, CZE CEV WApril 11-16 U-19 European Championships Final round Vienna / Krems, AUT CEV MApril 19-28 26th African Cup of Clubs Champions Niger CAVB MApril 20-22 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Guatemala NORCECAApril 27-29 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Jamaica NORCECAMay 1-6 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Shanghai FIVB M/WMay 4-6 Men’s EC Small Countries Division, Final round Cyprus CEV MMay 4-6 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Mexico NORCECAMay 7-15 6th Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball Championship Nakhon Ratchasima THA AVC WMay 8-12 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Manama, Bahrain FIVB MMay 11-13 Women’s EC Small Countries, Final round Scotland CEV WMay 11-20 VTV Cup Women’s Volleyball Invitation Vietnam AVC WMay 12-19 Spring Cup 2007 Brno CZE / Izola SLO CEV M/WMay 17-20 NESTEA European Championship Tour, Austrian Masters St. Pölten, AUT CEVMay 18-20 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Puerto Rico NORCECAMay 20-28 6th Asian Youth Boys’ Volleyball Championship Genting Highland MAS AVC MMay 23-27 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Sentosa, Singapore FIVB WMay 23-27 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Roseto degli Abruzzi ITA FIVB MMay 25-27 European League 2007 Qualification round Various venues CEVMay 25-27 World League, 1st week, pools A-D Various venues FIVB MMay 25-27 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2007 Trinidad & Tobago NORCECAMay 30-June 3 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Seoul, KOR FIVB WMay 31-June 3 NESTEA European Championship Tour, Russian Masters Moscow, RUS CEV

NORCECA’s annual Commission meetings

conFEDErATIonS

OnitstwodaysmeetingstheSports Organization Com-mission of the NORCECAConfederation announced

that the first NORCECA ContinentalMini Volleyball tournament for bothgenders- the first ever organized in-ternationally- would take place inColima,MexicoonJuly16-20.

Teams from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and the USA have confirmed their participation, and there is still room for another entry in the six-team event for boys and girls up to 12 years-old.

The different NORCECA commissions held their annual meetings with a record at-tendance and their members contributed to its success by sharing their enthusiasm as well as experience.

Other news:l The Dominican Republic will organ-

ize the IInd Men’s Pan American Cup on June 1-9 replacing Mexicali & Tijuana, Mexico. This is an eight-team quali-fier tournament for the 2008 America’s Cup.

l Winnipeg,Canada will host the Con-tinental Women’s Tournament on Sep-tember 17-22, where the top two teams will advance to the World Cup.

l The Men’sContinentalTournament will be held in Southern California (Los Angeles or Anaheim) on September 1-9, where the champion and the runner-up will move to the World Cup.

l The Women’sOlympicQualifier will be in Monterrey, Mexico on December 14-22, with the Men’s event confirmed in Caguas, Puerto Rico on January 5-13, 2008.

l The VIthWomen’sPanAmericanCup, a qualifier for the 2008 FIVB World Grand Prix, will be in Colima, Mexico on June 19-30.

l A Press Seminar will be held every other year starting in 2008 with the participation of 10 Press Officers from the different National Federations.

l Twentynewreferees (including two female members) have been promoted to international referees by the FIVB, informed Mr. Tom Blue.

l The CoachesCommission held a one-day Volleyball and Beach Volleyball clinic for Physical Education Teachers of the Dominican Republic and several countries of NORCECA. There are plans to extend it to two days next year.

Technical Courses and Seminars Calendar - April-May 2007DATES COURSE PLACE SPONSOR

DATES COURSE PLACE

Volleyball Cooperation Programme Calendar - April-May 2007

April 3-12 Refereeing IRCC Libyan Arab Jamahiriya FIVB

May 2-13 Coaches Level I Senegal FIVB

May 5-11 Refereeing IRCC Thailand, Kingdom of FIVB

May 7-18 Coaches Level I Barbados FIVB

May 12-19 Refereeing IRCC Dominican Republic FIVB

May 18-31 Coaches Level II Senegal FIVB

May 20-31 Coaches Level I St. Lucia FIVB

May 21-27 Refereeing Refresher Bahrain FIVB

April 3-8 Beach Volleyball Malawi

April 5-10 Refereeing Nepal

April 10-15 Teachers Syria

April 10-15 Refereeing Dominica

April 17-22 Beach Volleyball Haiti

April 23-28 Teachers Djibouti

May 1-6 Refereeing Fiji

May 2-8 Coaches Korea, People’s Democratic Republic

May 7-12 Young Players Saint Vincent & Grenadines

May 7-14 Coaches El Salvador

May 8-15 Coaches Tonga

May 10-15 Teachers Ghana

May 15-22 Coaches Philippines

May 20-25 Refereeing Mongolia

May 21-26 Refereeing Zimbabwe