FIVB Announces Draws for 2017 Beach World Championships

The FIVB, the world governing body for volleyball, has announced the pool breakouts for the 2017 World Beach Championships in Vienna, Austria.

The tournament will begin with a single round-robin in 4-team pools. The top 2 teams in each of the 12 pools will automatically advance to the round of 32, single-elimination bracket. So too will the top 4 3rd-place teams from pool play, based on match points, set-point ratios, and/or rally-point ratios.

The rest of the 3rd-place teams will go to a “Lucky Loser” round, where the 8 remaining teams will play a single head-to-head match to round out the 32.

Teams will be re-seeded for the elimination bracket, with pool winners earning seeds 1-12, pool runners-up taking seeds 13-24, and 3rd-place pool finishers (including “lucky losers”)earning seeds 25-32.

The 11th edition of this event will run from July 28th-August 6th, with $1 million in prize money available. That includes $60,000 to the winners of each tournament ($30,000 per player, in each gender). The women’s championship match will be August 5th while the men will be August 6th.

Because of partner changes post-Olympics, there are some players who are playing out of unusual positions. Kerri Walsh-Jennings, the most accomplished beach volleyball player in history, will play as the #25 seed, and 3rd-level team in Pool A. That’s because she’s now playing with Nicole Branagh after splitting with long-time partner April Ross, and teams are seeded based on their combined individual points – Branagh had far fewer than Walsh-Jennings, so on average, they’re middle-of-the-pack.

That’s bad news for Germany’s Bieneck/Schneider – who are sandwiched in between them and the top seeds from Brazil Larissa/Talita.

The defending Olympic champions, Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, are the #4 seeds – having lost ground after Ludwig underwent shoulder surgery and missed the first part of this year. They are the defending European, World Series, and Olympic champions, and if they regain their form, they will still be the favorites.

See the pool assignments below, and check back to our Event Channel over the next few weeks as we break down the draws.