The winning team from each city will receive a entrance to the Student Beach Tour Championship during FIVB SWATCH WORLD TOUR Paf Open 2012 with travel and accommodation paid. In this final the six teams will battle for the grand prize of a trip to Miami.

The tour stops is in:
- Mariehamn, 10 May
- Turku, 21 May
- Helsinki, 22 May
- Uppsala, 24 May
- Stockholm, Date TBD
- Tallinn, Date TBD

• Only students with a minimum age of 18 are allowed to participate.
• Each team will consist with 4 players, divided 50/50 between the genders.
• No beach volleyball player with a ranking higher than top 100 in each country is allowed to participate.
• No indoor volleyball player in a team playing in the premier league can participate.

To read more about each cities event, just click on your city on the tour schedule above. If your city does not have a link yet, it means that we are working on the event and we will give you more information soon.

Marta Menegatti with her young age of 21 has achieved a lot in her career already. Together with her partner Debora Allegretti she won the Youth European Championship in 2009. The last year, in 2011, she played with Greta Cicolari and together they won the European Championship in Kristiansand. Menegatti and Cicolari can therefore title themselves the best team in Europe. Marta had without a doubt her best season so far in 2011 and was announced by FIVB the most improved player of the year. During the season she played 13 events in the main draw with the best result a silver medal in Myslowice, Poland.

Today at 11:00 local time, Marta enters the FIVB SWATCH WORLD TOUR 2012 in Brasilia together with Cicolari. They are ranked seventh in the tournament and will in the first round of the main draw be challenged by the Japanese team Urata/Take who entered the main draw through qualification, defeating Emilia and Erika Nyström in the last game.

The open class was played both on friday and saturday with a total of an extraordinary 148 participants! With seven consecutive wins the champions were Kristin Lind/Anniken Rådström and Oscar Holm/Ruben Husby Pedersen.

The women’s challenger was comfortably won by Tora Hansson/Anne-Lie Rininsland. Tora is familiar to us as she has played our tournament three times, entering the main draw both 2009 and 2011. Anne-Lie was also seen at the FIVB SWATCH WORLD TOUR Paf Open 2011. She played together with Anna Åsberg but did not make it into the main draw. Hansson/Rininsland played a solid game through out the day and was never really in any trouble at any of the sets.

Winners in the men’s challenger were Øivind Hordvik/Stian Opsahl. Øivind who has made 11 appearances on the FIVB SWATCH WORLD TOUR main draw with his top notation being 17th on two occasions contributed with international experience to the tournament. He has visited Åland three times with a top 25 as his best result in 2011. The Norwegians who got into the tournament with a wild card played the final against the local team from Gothenburg Alen Rakovic and Elvir Rakovic. Alen and Elvir made a great effort reaching the final as they were the last team entering the competition but did not manage to defeat the Norwegians who won the final 2-0.

There will be mixed games with new partners every match, great prize table, tasty buffet and a sweet party with cool people. If you need somewhere to stay we have arranged special prices for you my friend with the local hotels, check it out below:

Special prices for you my friend at Scandic Södertälje (within walking distance) are:

500 sek per single room per night

550 sek per double room per night

235 sek per person per night in a shared room with three or four beds

Special prices for you my friend at Scandic Skogshöjd are:

690 sek per single room per night

800 sek per double room per night

335 sek per person per night in a shared room with three or four beds

To make the hotel reservation you have to call this number (+46) 08-51739114 and give the booking code ”The Beach”.

Read more and sign up for the After Beach here: http://beachvolley.se/afterbeach/

- That’s right. It’s actually the fourth year I’m working as Tournament Director for Paf Open. It’s a challenging position and my focus is to care for our partner relations as well as project management. But I’m telling you, without all the amazing people in the organization it would be impossible to set up this event. There are so many people working hard and they deserve the attention more than I do.

You really are a humble man. So, what improvement are you trying to make for this year?

- We are trying to make Paf Open a meeting spot that is much more than just beach volleyball. There will be lots of side activities, parties, food and drinks. Beach volleyball is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle. We hope that we are able to reflect that during Paf Open this year by giving people a wonderful atmosphere.

This year it will be a single gender tournament, with the women taking over the scene. In what way do you believe that will affect the event?

- Well, if you really like men’s beach volleyball you’ll be disapointed. But personally I prefer to watch women matches since they have longer rallies with more saves. I’m sure that the crowd will find the matches more entertaining. And like I said before, this event is so much more than just sports. If you feel like having the best weekend of the entire summer, this is the place to be.

Are you using any of your own experiences as a player to make this a great event?

- Definitely. I don’t think it’s been a coincidence that the players have been coming back year after year. There are some small things that make a huge difference for the players and as an ex-player I know these small things. Then of course there are a lot of things when it might even be too much player perspective from me and then my colleagues usually gives me a wake up call. So we use my experience as much as possible but still rely on what we all believe will be the best set up for the event.

As we are talking about your career as an active player you have met some of the best and well known players past the years. You also met Phil and Todd one match in 2006, how was that?

- Well, playing against Todd and Phil at that time felt like a catch 22 moment. We wanted to win but quite soon we realised we were going to lose. To think you can beat these guys are most of the time a stupid thought. No matter how I tried to hit past Phils block I was unable to succeed. He was everywhere. I have told friends that it felt like I was left in a locked room with a volleyball and then was asked to hit the ball out of the room. Impossible. That’s how I felt. He even block jumped in the wrong position, landed, side stepped and then jumped and made a block that landed right in my face. What to do? Just laugh at it. You can have a look at this block and then feel free to pick on me.

Thank you for telling this, I think we have youtube-moment coming up here!

So what’s your best memory from the previous editions of this event?

- Hmm, that’s a tricky question. I would say every time anyone in the organization have said that they are having fun working with the event. It’s a great feeling when you hear that. Of course there have been lots of fantastic matches over the years and it has always been fun to watch Larissa and Juliana from Brazil.

What do you look forward to for the Paf Open event this year?

- There will be lots of great matches. There will be parties. There will good food and drinks. There will be lots of side activities. There will be lots of people. I can’t chose, I pick the whole package! The atmosphere might be a good word to describe it.

That sounds great. Thank you very much for your time and good luck with the preparations.

- Thank you.