Beach Volleyball Day 1 Preview: Preliminary round kicks off tomorrow

(BEIJING, August 8)-- The Olympic Women and Men's Beach Volleyball competitions will kick off tomorrow with teams jostling for a good start in their quest for a spot in the 16-team single-elimination round.

The first women's qualification match (Pool A, Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes of Norway vs. Liesbet Van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha of Belgium) will start at 9 a.m. local time (UTC/GMT +8), while the men's competition starts at 10 a.m., with Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of the Netherlands pitted against Switzerland's Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider in Pool E.

The next women's match will be the No. 1 seed Tian Jia and Wang Jie of China facing Simone Kuhn and Lea Schwer of Switzerland at 11:00 a.m.

The first day of competition will also feature the men's No. 1 seed Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of the United States taking on Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Martins Plavins of Latvia at 9:00 p.m., with the men's No. 2 seed, Brazilians Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego, to face Emanuel Fernandes and Morais Abreu of Angola at 1:00 p.m.

The first round of Pool C in the women's competition will conclude with Brazilians Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca, the third seed at Beijing 2008, taking on their 19th-seeded rivals Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Georgia. Silva nearly missed Beijing 2008 due to a ligament injury, but a lot is expected from her.

The opening day of Beach Volleyball concludes with David Klemperer and Eric Koreng of Germany (Pool E) taking on Norwegians Jorre Kjemperud and Tarjei Skarlund at 11:30 p.m.