World Grand Prix 2012 already in three months

On the 8th of June this year’s edition of the World Grand Prix tournament in women's volleyball will begin. This will be the 20th edition in the history of the tournament. 16 teams will participate in the tournament (till the year 2010 there were 12 participants only): USA (no. 1 in the FIVB ranking), Brazil (2), Japan (3), Italy (4), China (5), Serbia (6), Germany (8), Dominican Republic (9), Cuba (10), Turkey (11), Thailand (12), South Korea (13), POLAND (14), Argentina (18) and Puerto Rico (19), as well as Kenya (15) or Taiwan (depending on the 28th qualifications which are not finished yet).

On the 8^th of June this year’s edition of the World Grand Prix tournament in women's volleyball will begin. This will be the 20^th edition in the history of the tournament. 16 teams will participate in the tournament (till the year 2010 there were 12 participants only): USA (no. 1 in the FIVB ranking), Brazil (2), Japan (3), Italy (4), China (5), Serbia (6), Germany (8), Dominican Republic (9), Cuba (10), Turkey (11), Thailand (12), South Korea (13), POLAND (14), Argentina (18) and Puerto Rico (19), as well as Kenya (15) or Taiwan (depending on the 28^th qualifications which are not finished yet).

The qualifying tournaments will take place in the following terms: 8^th -10^th of June, 15^th -17^th of June and 22^nd -24^th of June. The final has been scheduled for the 27^th of June – the 1^st of July in China.

Between the 8^th of June and the 1^st of July 90 matches on three continents will take place – in America, Asia and Europe. During each of the first three weeks four tournaments will be performed. Eight teams will perform in the final. Most of the matches, including those with the polish national team, will be transmitted by Polsat tv.

Poland will organize preliminary tournament with the strongest teams. The event (two matches per day) will be held in term 8^th -10^th of June in Atlas Arena hall in Łódź, with participation of Brazil, Italy, Serbia and Poland. These are the best top teams of the world and the tournament will be one of the last tests before the forthcoming Olympic Games in London.

In the past two years of the World Grand Prix the best team was USA, and earlier (2008-09) – Brazil. Popular „Canarinhie” are the only national team who won the World Grand Prix three Times in a row (2004-06). Furthermore, Brazil also had its triumphs in: 1994, 1996 and 1998 (8 times in total), and USA – in 1995 and 2001 (four times in total). The remaining winners were: Russia (3 – 1997, 1998 and 2002), Cuba (2 – 1993 and 2000), China (1 – 2003) and the Netherlands (1 – 2007).

In the 19 years old World Grand Prix history only 6 teams had possibility to win. Polish volleyball players participate in the FIVB WGP since 2004. In the previous 8 editions our players won 34 matches and lost 48. They have been lead by 5 coaches (respectively: Andrzej Niemczyk, Ireneusz Kłos, Marco Bonitta, Jerzy Matlak and Alojzy Świderek). Twice (2007 and 2010) they manager to gain promotion to the final, finishing with the last six place.

Tickets for the ‘polish’ part of the World Grand Prix will be available from April on the www.ticketpro.pl as well as in all of the sale points of the TicketPro company.