Lausanne, Switzerland, September 16, 2015 – The FIVB has confirmed the venues of the three Age-Group World Championships in 2016 with the Cypriot town of Larnaka maintaining its proud record of hosting Age-Group Beach Volleyball World Championships after it was named as the host of the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships.
The tournament will take place from July 26-31 and it is the third time that a World Championship has visited the sands of Cyprus after Larnaka hosted the 2012 U19 World Championships and the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in 2014.
The two other age-group tournaments in 2016 are the FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 World Championships, which will take place in Maceio in Brazil from February 17-21, and the
U21 World Championships, which will be held in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 11-16.
Lucerne’s hosting of the U21 World Championships comes soon after it played host to the successful and popular inaugural Lucerne Open on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour earlier in 2015.
Two years ago, Porto hosted the U19 World Championships, while Acapulco hosted the U17 event.
All three events are designed to act as a pathway for a player’s progression to playing regularly on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, with the winners receiving wild cards to participate in that competition. The age-group tournaments also feature a number of education programmes for young athletes, notably leading the way with the anti-doping message, and acting as young players’ first taste of international competition.
The tournaments feature a main draw of 32 teams in eight pools of four teams, with 24 teams progressing to the elimination rounds.
As well as preparing players to participate in the World Tour, the three age-group events in 2016 are also the next major events in the run-up to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018 and the Age-Group Beach Volleyball World Championships in the same year.