Blanton: 'There Will Be No Easy Matches'
8/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Aug. 4, 2004
Story contributed by USA Volleyball and FIVB
Athens Focus for United States Olympic Beach Volleyball Teams KLAGENFURT, AUSTRIA, - With the pre-Olympic schedule behind them on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour, the two men's and two women's Beach Volleyball teams from the United States that have qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games now shift their focus to Athens. "I'm excited to get there and start our preparations for the opening matches," said Stein Metzger, who placed 13th here this week with Dax Holdren after loosing to the other American team in the Olympics, Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, 15-21, 24-22 and 16-14 Saturday morning. With Blanton/Nygaard and Holdren/Metzger filling out the two men's berth, the United States will be represented by the women's tandems of Misty May/Kerri Walsh and Holly McPeak/Elaine Youngs. Blanton and Nygaard used their win over Holdren and Metzger to place seventh in the $540,000 A1 Grand Slam this week. With May sidelined with an abdominal strain, Walsh teamed with Rachel Wacholder to win the women's competition by defeating top-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil 21-13 and 21-7 in the finals to share the $40,500 first-place prize. McPeak and Youngs placed fourth after losing to American rivals Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan in the bronze medal match. "We are anxious to get through the initial Olympic process period so we can get use to the surroundings and the time change," said Metzger. "We feel we are in our best physical and emotional shape right now. After securing our spot for Athens early last month, we are more relaxed now and getting ready to hit the beach next week for training." With coach Jeff Alzina, Holdren and Metzger will arrive in Athens early Tuesday morning while the other three American teams will return home to Southern California for a week's work of training and Olympic planning. With Blanton and Nygaard the No. 1 men's team in the Olympic qualifying rankings from the start of the season, Holdren and Metzger had to beat out Todd Rogers and Sean Scott for the second American men's berth. For Holdren, that was tough since he and Rogers started their Beach Volleyball careers as partners. "Obviously, I wish Todd was going to be at the Olympics due to our friendship both on-and-off the court," said Holdren, who split with his first partner to start the Olympic process with Eric Fonoimoana before joining forces in August 2003 with Metzger. "I don't what to take anything away from Dain and Jeff since they earned their spot in Athens with a great start to the process last year," Holdren continued. "But, Todd and I learned this game together. Todd and Sean had their chances, but our silver medal finish in the FIVB World Championships last October really gave us an edge in the competition for the second USA spot." For Blanton, the return to the Olympic will be as a defending champion as he and Fonoimoana won the Sydney 2000 gold medal by defeating heavily-favored Ze Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos in the finals on Bondi Beach. "No more pressure than playing in any other big time event," is how Blanton answered the question of handlng the role as defending Olympic champions. "Right now, Jeff and I are more focused on getting ready to play three very tough matches in the preliminary rounds. For both men and women, the preliminary competition will be divided into six pools of four teams each for both genders. The top two teams from each pool advance to the 16-team elimination brackets along with the top 4 third-place teams based on pool record, and set and point ratios." "If you don't win at least two matches in your pool, you will not get a chance to medal," said Blanton. "We know that we can beat everyone in our pool, but they can also beat us. There will be no easy matches." The Brazilian teams of Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos and Benjamin Insfran and Marcio Araujo are the top seeded teams in Pool A and Pool B, respectively. Host Greece was awarded the top seed in Pool F with the team of Pavlos Beligratis and Thanassis Michalopoulos. Switzerland will have the top-ranked teams in Pool C (Martin and Paul Laciga) and Pool E (Patrick Heuscher/Stefan Kobel). Germany's Markus Dieckmann and Jonas Reckerman are the top seeds in Pool D. Blanton and Nygaard (No. 8-seeded team) are in Pool E with Heuscher/Kobel (5), Julien Prosser/Mark Williams of Australia (17) and John Child/Mark Heese of Canada (20). Child and Heese were the Olympic bronze medalists in 1996 at Atlanta. Metzger and Holdren (12) are in Pool A with Emanuel/Ricardo (1), Andrew Schacht/Joshua Slack of Australia (13) and Iver Horrem/Bjorn Maaseide of Norway (24). Emanuel and Ricardo have won 10 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour titles the past two seasons and are one of the top favorites for Athens. Benjamin and Marcio Araujo (2) are joined in Pool B with Christoph Dieckmann/Andreas Scheuerpflug of Germany (11), Francisco Alvarez/Juan Rossell of Cuba (14) and Stephane Canet/Mathieu Hamel of France (23). The Laciga brothers (3), who placed fifth in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, lead Pool C with Nikolas Berger/Clemens Doppler of Austria (10), Javier Bosma/Pablo Herrera of Spain (15) and Robert Nowotny/Peter Gartmayer of Austria (22) Markus Dieckmann and Reckermann (4) are the featured team in Pool D with Jorre Kjemperud/Vegard Hoidalen of Norway (9), Bjorn Berg/Simon Dahl of Sweden (16) and Ramon Hernandez/Raul Papaleo of Puerto Rico (21). Joining Beligratis and Michalopoulos (6) in Pool F are Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde of Argentina (7), Luis Maia/Joao Brenha of Portugal (18) and Colin Pocock/Gershon Rorich of South Africa (19). Maia and Brenha placed fourth in both the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. With Greece's Vasso Karadassiou and Efi Sfyri seeded sixth and in Pool F, the other top five-seeded women's teams in order of the Olympic qualifying rank are May/Walsh (Pool A), Adriana/Shelda (Pool B), Ana Paula Connolly/Sandra Pires of Brazil (Pool C), McPeak/Youngs (Pool D) and Natalie Cook/Nicole Sanderson of Australia (Pool E). May, who placed fifth in Sydney 2000 with McPeak, and Walsh headline Pool A with Eva Celbova/Sona Novakova of Czech Republic (12), Rebekka Kadijk/Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands (13) and Chiaki Kusuhara/ryo Tokuno of Japan (24). McPeak, who also placed fifth in the Atlanta Olympics with Nancy Reno, and Youngs (4) are the featured team in Pool D with Nicole Schnyder-Benoit/Simone Kuhn of Switzerland (9), Guylaine Dumont/Annie Martin of Canada (16) and Kathrine Maaseide/Susanne Glesnes of Norway (21). Joining the Karadassiou and Sfyri in Pool F are Tian Jia/Wang Fei of China (7), Summer Lochowicz/Kerri Pottharst of Australia (18) and Mayra Garcia/Hilda Gaxiola of Mexico (19). Pottharst and Cook are two-time Olympic medalists after winning the bronze in Atlanta and the gold in Sydney where they defeated Adriana and Shelda in the finals. Adriana and Shelda (2), the 1999 and 2001 FIVB World Champions and runnerups in 2003 to May and Walsh, are joined in Pool B with Dalixia Fernandez Grasset/Tamara Larrea Peraza of Cuba (11), Daniela Gattelli/Lucilla Perrotta of Italy (14) and Leigh-Ann Naidoo/Julia Willand of South Africa (23). Ana Paula and Pires (3) lead Pool C with Suzanne Lahme/Danja Musch of Germany (10), Vassiliki Arvaniti/Efthalia Koutroumanidou of Greece (15) and Nila Ann Hakedal/Ingrid Torlen of Norway (22). Pires will be seeking her third Olympic medal after winning the gold with Jackie Silva in the 1996 Atlanta Games and capturing the bronze in Sydney 2000 with Adriana Samuel. Cook and Sanderson will be competing in Pool E with Stephanie Pohl/Okka Rau of Germany (8), Lu Wang/Whenhui You of China (17) and the Bulgarian Yanchulova sisters (Lina and Petia, 20).
2004 Athens Pools
Men's Pool A
· Emanuel/Ricardo, BRA
· Holdren/Metzger, USA
· Schacht/Slack, AUS
· Horrem/Maaseide, NOR
Men's Pool B
· Benjamin.Marcio Araujo, BRA
· C. Dieckmann/Scheuerpflug, GER
· Alvarez/Rossell, CUB
· Canet/Hamel, FRA
Men's Pool C
· Lacigas, SUI
· Berger/Doppler, AUT
· Bosma/Herrera, ESP
· Gartmayer/Nowotny, AUS
Men's Pool D
· M. Dieckmann/Reckermann, GER
· Hoidalen/Kjemperud, NOR
· Berg/Dahl, SWE
· Hernandez/Papaleo, PUR
Men's Pool E
· Heuscher/Kobel, SUI
· Blanton/Nygaard, USA
· Prossser/Williams, AUS
· Child/Heese, CAN
Men's Pool F
· Michalopoulos/Beligratis, GRE
· Barcetti/Conde, ARG
· Brenha/Maia, POR
· Pocock/Rorich, RSA
Men's seed, Team, Country, qualifying points
1. Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil, 3,920
2. Benjamin Instran/Marcio Araujo, Brazil, 3,128
3. Martin Laciga/Paul Laciga, Switzerland, 3,018
4. Markus Dieckmann/Jonas Reckermann, Germany, 2,934
5. Patrick Heuscher/Stefan Kobel, Switzerland, 2,792
6. Thanassis Michalopoulos/Pavlos Beligratis, Greece, 220*
7. Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde, Argentina, 2,634
8. Dain Blanton/Jeff Nygaard, United States, 2,296
9. Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud, Norway, 2,198
10. Nikolas Berger/Clemens Doppler, Austria, 2,044
11. Christoph Dieckmann/Andreas Scheuerpflug, Germany, 2,126
12. Dax Holdren/Stein Metzger, United States, 1,980
13. Andrew Schacht/Joshua Slack, Australia, 1,584
14. Francisco Alvarez/Juan Rossell, Cuba, 1,492
15. Javier Bosma/Pablo Herrera, Spain, 1,420
16. Björn Berg/Simon Dahl, Sweden, 1,272
17. Julien Prosser/Mark Williams, Australia, 1,556
18. Joao Brenha/Luis Maia, Portugal, 1,578
19. Colin Pocock/Gershon Rorich, South Africa, 242#
20. John Child/Mark Heese, Canada, 1,034
21. Ramon Hernandez/Raul Papaleo, Puerto Rico, 1,052
22. Peter Gartmayer/Robert Nowotny, Austria, 1,102
23. Stephane Canet/Mathieu Hamel, France, 1,056
24. Iver Horrem/Bjorn Maaseide, Norway, 1,220
