dimanche 18 juillet 2010

WVBF Protour 2010 Presented by Cornèrcard in Florence
"A Lightly game despite a gloomy weather"

(Vevey June 30, 2010) After two very successful legs in Catania 2008 and 2009, Italy once again brought honour to the WVBF Beach Volleyball World Championship Protour with the organisation of the first ever edition in Florence on the beautiful and legendary « Piazza Santa Croce ». The world best players have braved a very unfair weather to offer an exceptional sport quality to the brave public who has attended the competitions.

The Saturday competitions day had to be cancelled due to a heavy weather and dangerous sand, because of that the finals, originally planed on Sunday, had to be cancelled too. The classification was then done in proportion of matches’ victories. For the women’s draw, it is once again the strong American pair composed of Elizabeth "Liz » Pagano and Noel Frohman who took the first place before Brazil and Canada.

The men competitions where particularly tight, in fact no fewer than four teams were competing for top ranking. It was in fact impossible, according to the number of played games, to separate Brazil, Slovenia, Switzerland and an "American-Italian" pairs who must share the cup by four.

Jean Pierre Seppey, WVBF President, the only global Volleyball and Beach volleyball institution who respect and fully implement the International Olympic Committee (IOC) principles and ethical values: financial transparency, democratically elections with secret ballot, recognition of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and full respect of the Olympics fundamental principles, congratulates the work done by the Italian organizing committee and he is optimistic for the future "I want to congratulate the Italian Beach Volleyball Federation (FIBV), its president Vittorio Silvestri and all the squad for their amazing work in very difficult conditions, it is largely due to their excellent reactivity that the tournament has been played in the best possible conditions."

The FIBV President, Vittorio Silvestri, thanked Florence authorities and all the event partners for their support "Despite my disappointment, I would just like to thank the Firence political authorities of the city, Mateo Renzi, the Mayor of Firence, all partners and sponsors without whom the tournament could not have taken place. All have already confirmed their support for the 2011 edition which will be, I am sure, marked by a more favourable weather"