2010 WUC Beach Volleyball Update: Day 3 of Competitions

POL vs. TUR

ALANYA – Today, June 18th, under hard weather conditions of 40 degrees and just 14% of humidity on the Alanya side of the Mediterranean Sea, the beach volleyball elimination matches of the 5th World University Beach Volleyball Championship continued.

Coaches and support staff had a lot of work to keep the athletes in a good shape to perform. Small injuries like high blood pressure, cramping, indisposition came up and have been treated with a professional approach by the medical crew of the OC. The Medical staff of 6 headed by Dr. Mehmet Cam is always around the 7 competition courts and does a perfect job.

Everyday the competition and matches grow more exciting and bring up new unexpected results and surprises. Today in the Men’s group the favorites of this WUC, the team of Czech Republic CZE 1 was eliminated by USA team 2 with a 1:2 on the scoreboard. This game was the most exciting match of the day. You could see many ball exchanges and perfect moving of both teams on the field. Accurate and strong service, blocking on the net and spiking the ball was an excellent skill performed by both teams.

In the women’s group we could see great performance of FRA against USA 2, 2:1 and CAN 1 against ESP, 1:2. All results can be found on the website of OC at www.wubc2010.org.

Czech PlayerThe OC of Alanya with the Municipality of Alanya and TUSF headed by Mr. Kemal TAMER who is also President of OC, are well prepared for this tournament. One of the most striking elements at this beach volleyball championship is the high level of interest shown by the media. There are two OBI vans parked outside the venue since the first day of the competition using cameras which are snapping away in the five courts. There are 5 High definition cameras for every game on the main court.

During the evening session, Dr. RALETHE MALUMBETE (RSA) – CISCA Chair and first Assessor of Executive Committee was a guest of a live coverage in the studio of the local TV station, ALANYA channel. Dr. RALETHE stressed the importance of the good collaboration between the TUSF and the government on both national and local level for being able to host and deliver professional university games. It is obvious and very clear that the people of Alanya are living with sport in their hearts and they would like to have more events here in the future.

Both the FISU officials and participating teams are very happy with the high level achieved already by the organizers. “It is also important for Alanya, as a popular tourist destination, to continue being fully behind the TUSF in bringing events over here because university sport might help to broaden this market for them in their beautiful settings” he said referring to the great number of tourists that are cheering for their home nations while they are here on vacation. “There are also a lot of parents from around the world who have accompanied their children playing here. The facilities are great, security in place and health areas well looked after.This has even led to a situation where the level of the games is high”, said Dr. RALETHE. He assured TV audience that Alanya does stand a good chance to host more FISU events in the future, perhaps even for other ISFs.

Everybody is looking forward for tomorrow’s competition because now it really starts to matter and the best teams will play on Sunday the Semi-finals and Finals of the 5th WUC Beach Volleyball.

Milan Augustin, FISU Director for Winter Universiade