FIVB Beach Volleyball Qatar Open back in Doha

The second and last tournament for men only on the 2016 portion of the 2015/2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Calendar, Doha, Qatar will present the FIVB Qatar Open on April 4-8. It will be the third straight year that Qatar has hosted a FIVB World Tour event in Doha.

Home heroes welcome you to Qatar

The 2015 FIVB Qatar Open, held November 9-13, was one of three events in 2015 part of the 2015/2016 FIVB World Tour, which features two events in Doha in the same season.

Winning the gold medal in last November’s event was Germany’s Markus Böckermann/Lars Flüggen, marking the second straight year that the event was won by a team from Germany. The United States claimed both silver and the bronze medals in November as USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena duo was second and third was USA’s John Hyden/Tri Bourne.

Winning the gold medal in the inaugural event in 2014 was Germany’s rookie team of Tim Holler/Jonas Schroder. The silver medal went to Canada’s Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter and the bronze medal was won by France’s Yousef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson.

The first men’s FIVB World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil while the first women’s FIVB World Tour event in Brazil was played in 1993 in Rio de Janeiro. The women’s FIVB World Tour held its first tournament on August 14-16 in Almeria, Spain in 1992.

The 2015/2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar began with three Open events at the end of 2015. The remainder of the 2015/2016 calendar will include multiple FIVB Open and multiple FIVB Grand Slam events along with more Swatch FIVB Major Series events, and the second Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals.  The highlight of the calendar will be the 2015/2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil featuring 24 teams in each gender.

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, it has a population of over 1 million. Doha is Qatar's largest city, with over 60 per cent of the nation's population residing in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and is also the economic center of the country. It is also one of the municipalities of Qatar.

The city of Doha held the 2006 Asian Games, which was the largest Asian Games ever held. Doha also hosted the 2011 Pan Arab Games and most of the games of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. Doha will also host a large number of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The World Petroleum Council held the 20th World Petroleum Conference in Doha in December 2011.

The event continues the Road to Rio that lasts until June 13, 2016 with FIVB World Tour events counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine 15 of 24 spots for each gender that will take part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The 2016 FIVB World Ranking system will again include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.

Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. While the FIVB World Championships had 48 teams, all other tournaments have 32 teams and begin with a qualification tournament in each gender to determine the final eight teams in the main draw fields.

Country quota playoffs are also held, as needed, to determine the final teams for qualification tournaments.

The 2014-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is back again this year as it completes its portion of the qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.