Olympics beach volleyball on Sardinia

The tournament will be held on Tortoli from June 27 to July 1, 2012. Date and place of the tournament were announced at the Borsa Internazionale del Turismo tourism exhibition in Milan on Friday, March 2, 2012. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Regional Committee of Sardinia Vincenzo Ammendola, as well as the stars of world beach volleyball tour, the European champions Greta Chicolari, Marta Manegatti and Matteo Ingrosso.

The qualifying tournament will be held on Sardinia both for men and women teams. Teams from five continents will be playing for the Olympics licenses.

Beach volleyball is an extremely popular sport in Italy. Its popularity is backed by the fact that in 2011 the world championship in this sport was held in Rome. The president of the World Beach Volleyball Committee called the last champs in Rome "the best beach volleyball championship of all time". Against this background, choosing of Sardinia and the resort of Tortoli witnesses about the increase of the Italian influence in the world of beach volleyball.

Volleyball tournament in Tortoli will be the final qualifying competition in a series of tournaments to determine the Olympics participants, which lasted for three years and were attended by nearly 70 countries.

Tortoli is a resort on Sardinia located in the west part of the island. The town is famous for its ancient port of Arbatax.

It should be noted that Sardinia is not the only region where the pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments will be held. So, from 6 to June 11, 2012 such event - SWATCH World Tour Moscow Grand Slam - will be held in Moscow.