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| *The 16th PIA All Japan College Beach Volleyball Cup
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The 16th PIA All Japan College Beach
Volleyball Cup took place in Kobe from 31 July-1 August. The event is
the deciding tournament for the best University teams in the country,
and this year's contest was won by Kanoya National Institute of Fitness
and Sports (men) and Tokyo's Women's College of Physical Education.
Exhibition matches featured pro players
such as Kentaro Asahi and Koichi Nishimura of Beach Winds, Katsutoshi
Tshumagari of SUNTORY SUNBIRDS and Hiroyuki Kai of SAKAI BLAZERS. The
high level of play delighted the crowd and DJ Yuji Yamamoto explained
the significance of the Ecoflag Movement to all those present.
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| *SWATCH-FIVB World Tour 2004 Japan Open |
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| The SWATCH-FIVB
World Tour 2004 Japan Open (women) took place on 2-6 June at the Osaka
Sennan Satoumi Beach Volleyball Stadium. 32 women’s teams took part,
with three pairs (Tokuno/ Kusahara, Saiki/ Urada, Tanaka/ Makabe)
representing Japan. The Saiki/ Urada team are GSA Navigators and they
ranked highest of the Japanese teams in seventh place.
Announcements were made throughout the competition,
explaining the significance of the Ecoflag and asking spectators to
separate garbage or take it home. The International Volleyball
Federation (FIVB) has been taking part in the Ecoflag Movement since
last year, flying the Ecoflag on the World Tour under the slogan ‘Keep
the beach clean-Think environment!’
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The flag was flying prominently at the Osaka Open,
making a strong impression on the stadium and television audiences.
Weather conditions proved excellent, despite rain warnings on the
second day of the final rounds (last years event was hit by a typhoon,
although it lucky passed quickly).
Brazil’s Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil beat
Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson of Australia in the final and enjoyed
the kind of support you usually only find at a home game. The
Australian pair on the other hand, fought some tough competition on
their way to the final, unfortunately aggravating some injuries on the
way. Mindful of the road to Athens that lies ahead, Cook (a gold
medallist at Sydney 2000) is looking forward to a few days off before
the next onslaught.
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| RESULTS |
1st Shelda Bede/ Adriana Behar (Brazil) |
2nd Natalie Cook/ Nicole Sanderson
(Australia) |
3rd Nicole Schnyder-Benoit/ Simone Kuhn
(Switzerland) |
| *Koichi Nishimura's report from Brazil |
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Report from
Brazil
We are at a training camp in Brazil, receiving two months excellent
coaching before returning to Japan on 20 April.
Today we held an unofficial tournament of eight teams (five
representing Brazil, as well as one each from Japan, Italy and
Slovakia), which we called the ‘Ecoflag Tournament’. We got the
sponsors to agree and a ‘cleanup’ was held after the event.
We came second in the tournament. After
playing Brazil #3, Slovakia and Brazil #2, we narrowly lost to Brazil#1
in the final. We are steadily getting stronger and hope this year will
be a turning point for us.
Koichi Nishimura
BEACHWINDS
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| *King and Queen of the Beach - Beach Volleyball in Brazil
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The Ecoflag was flying at the King and Queen of the
Beach, beach volleyball
event in Brazil last week. Beach volleyball is hugely popular in Brazil
and
a great oppportunity for increasing environmental awareness and action.
Paper, glass and can recycing activities took place with children
joining in
to learn about proper garbage and recycling practises.
The photos shows the winning American pair, Kerry Walsh and Misty May,
who collected five World Tour titles on the Swatch-FIVB World Tour last
year and Brazilian team member Giovani.
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