One-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour arrives in Oman

In a first for Oman, the Oman Volleyball Association (OVA) will host the prestigious one-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour – Muscat Open – from Wednesday.

Musannah Sports City, which hosted the 2010 Asian Beach Games and the 2012 World Beach Handball Championships, will be the venue of the one-star tournament from March 14-17.

The all-men tour will feature 15 nations and is expected to boost the beach volleyball credentials of Oman with its players already making a mark at regional and Arab level tournaments.

Oman will be represented by six teams while there will be teams from Qatar, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Australia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Italy, Iran and US.

Last November, when Oman hosted the Arab Beach Volleyball Championship, the Omani duo of Haitham al Shuraiqi and Ahmed al Hosni had won silver.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan won the title with a 2-0 victory (21-19, 21-18). At the same event, Oman nearly had two teams on the podium, but Nouh al Jalboobi and Mazin al Hashmi lost to Lebanon in the bronze-medal match 0-2.

Oman will be the second leg of the one-star tour with the opening tour held in Shepparton, Australia from February 1-4. Besides the Oman leg, there will be 13 other venues for the one-star tour.

The prize-money for the winner is US$5,000.

According to FIVB, the world volleyball governing body, since the introduction of ranking tournaments from one to five stars based on the quality of venue, facilities and technology, more events are being added to the calendar every year.

Competitions ranked five-star and four-star are considered the elite events, while those with a lower rating are considered as opportunities to develop the sport around the world, providing more countries with the chance to gain hosting experience and inspire spectators to engage in beach volleyball.