Als World Tour Blog - Part 1 - Montreal
By Al Hinchley
10th July 2007

What's the deal? Al Hinchley is going to be at three world tour events over the next couple of weeks, including the World Champs in Gstaad Switzerland. He's going to be posting an update as regularly as possible, right here at spikemag.com.au. Keep checking back for more updates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 5 - Main Draw Day 1

T gets cranky against the Phillipines

As you can see from the results Josh & Schachty dominated today. They looked very good and took out both games in two sets to cruise through the winners bracket. Tamsin & Nat had two wins also but the second match was far from easy. After losing to the Norwegian girls on home soil last week, T & Nat were out for revenge. The first set went according to plan but of course the Norwegians fought back in the second to even it up. The third set turned into an epic with the lead going back and forth. The Norwegians had match point at 14-13 then T & Nat fought back to go up 16-15. After having us thinking the game was over on two separate occasions (T & Nat had already hugged and were waiting to shake hands until a line call over-rule and a micro touch by Nat on the other point) the girls to closed it out at 22-20. I didn't get a chance to see Summer & Heike play today but it sounded like they had a tough day in the main draw. Bec & Leenie had a great start against the number 2 seeds from China. It wasn't 21-2 as the score below says but they did take the first set. From there it got really entertaining, Tian Jia seemed to hurt her knee mid way through the second set. She called over the Chinese trainer during a timeout, who applied some tape but it didn't last very long on court. Then she called a medical timeout kicking a chair as she yelled for the trainer again. He did a better job this time, with the break seeming to undo the Aussies momentum. Great job by the girls even though they didn't get the win. Today's Results Schacht-Slack AUS [7] Ces-Cès FRA [26] 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) 0:37 T gets cranky against the Philippines Schacht-Slack AUS [7] Kjemperud-Skarlund NOR [10] 2-0 (25-23, 21-14) 0:47 Barnett-Cook AUS [3] Pascua-Ilustre PHI [30] 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) 0:37 Palmer-Romanowski AUS [31] Tian Jia-Wang CHN [2] 1-2 (21-2, 11-21, 11-15) 0:56 L.Wang-Zuo CHN [11] Summer-Jensen AUS [22] 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) 0:37 Barnett-Cook AUS [3] Maaseide-Glesnes NOR [14] 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 22-20) 1:02 Perrotta-Gattelli ITA [18] Palmer-Romanowski AUS [31] 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) 0:39 Summer-Jensen AUS [22] Van Breedam-Mouha BEL [27] 0-2 (8-21, 13-21) 0:31 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 4 - Qualification

Isaac Kapa passing nails

The qualification tournament turned out to be a great day on the women's side of the draw but not so great on the men's. I didn't catch any of Chris & Trent's match against a team from Mexico (Virgen-Miramontes). They went down 0-2. First round for Isaac & Richo was against Kobbevik-Engebretsen from Norway. They started well in the first set leading all the way. The second set was won by the Norwegians to even it up. Richo & Isaac got a great start to the third going up 10-3 and getting to match point at 14-10. The wheels started to get a little bit wobbly then with the Norwegians getting 3 easy points to make it 14-13. I was confident that Isaac was going to side out for the match but luckily he wasn't tested as the Norwegians served out to end the match and gave Isaac his first world tour win. Their second match, with a spot in the main draw on the line, wasn't as good. They went down to a team from Venezuela that jumped through the roof and didn't give the guys a chance to get into the match. Brad & Duck's first match was also against a team from Norway. Their match went pretty much the same way as Richo & Isaac. Won the first and lost the second. The third set was very tight though. I wandered over after watch Richo & Isaac win, hoping to see another Aussie team take down Norway, but it wasn't the case. After getting to 13-13 Brad played two really tentative points to end up losing 15-13. The Isaac Kapa passing nails guys were very disappointed afterwards with Brad saying he was a little bit nervous at the end. Katie & Zina started off the day for the Australian women with a tough game against Celbova-Nakladalova from the Czech Republic. The Aussie girls went down 2-0 but I'm sure they took a lot out of the experience including Katie's nice jump serve ace towards the end of the first set. Bec & Leenie and Summer & Heike weren't really tested today and easily made it into the main draw. This was the first main draw berth for both teams and it was nice to see them so happy afterwards. Bec & Leenie stared in the FIVB press release even though they had to be instructed on what to wear in the photo. Today's Results Pothaar-Czerveniak CAN [13] Summer-Jensen AUS [4] 0-2 (13-21, 12-21) 0:34 Dalen-Wiig NOR [5] Palmer-Romanowski AUS [12] 0-2 (18-21, 18-21) 0:38 Celbova-Nakladalova CZE [15] Bartoli-Stone AUS [18] 2-0 (21-7, 21-7) 0:24 Hernandez-Jackson VEN [5] Richardson-Kapa AUS [12] 2-0 (21-14, 21-11) 0:36 Kobbevik-Engebretsen NOR [21] Richardson-Kapa AUS [12] 1-2 (17-21, 21-19, 13-15) 0:51 Irwin-McHugh AUS [22] Virgen-Miramontes MEX [10] 0-2 (11-21, 10-21) Huseby-Hellum NOR [17] Wyer-Smith AUS [16] 2-1 (20-22, 21-12, 15-13) 0:54 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 3 - Country Quota With an influx of Australian teams into Canada this was the first event Australia has had to participate in the country quota playoffs. On the women's side Summer & Heike along with Becchara & Eileen each received a bye into the qualification tournament. The men's teams of Brad & Duck and Richo & Isaac also received a bye, as a result of each team having previous world tour points.

The Australian Women's Youth World Championship team. from left to right... Zina Stone, Katie Bartoli, Taylor Schulz and Mariafe Artacho.

So that left the young guns to duel it out. The Australian Youth World Championships teams are on their way to Myslowice Poland for the 2007 Youth SWATCH FIVB World Championships from July 11 to July 15. As part of their tournament preparation and to give the kids a look at their first world tour event, they stopped by Montreal. With a spot in the qualification tournament on the line Katie Bartoli & Zina Stone took down Taylor Schulz & Mariafe 2-0. The men's game was the same result with Chris McHugh & Trent Irwin overcoming Harry Peacock & Greg Mann. Today's Results Peacock-Mann AUS Irwin-McHugh AUS 0-2 (16-21, 15-21) 0:42 Schulz-Artacho AUS Bartoli-Stone AUS 0-2 (18-21, 18-21) 0:35

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