Germany versus Argentina or Finland for Antalya women’s gold

Antalya, Turkey, May 14, 2016 – The women’s “final four” matches here Saturday mid-day on the BeachPark center court at the US$150,000 Antalya Open will offer many interesting notes for each of the participating pairs from Argentina, Finland and Germany competing in the semi-final and medal round of the FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball event.

The opening semi-final match features two German pairs where top-seeded Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst are challenged by seventh-seeded compatriots Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler.  The second match has sixth-seeded Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug of Argentina meeting 15th-seeded Taru Lahti and Riikka Lehtonen of Finland.

The winners of the two matches will advance to the 4:45 p.m. (local time) gold medal match with Germany assured a least one spot on the podium while Finland will be seeking its first-ever men’s or women’s medal on the FIVB World Tour since the start of international-sanctioned events in 1987 for men and 1992 for women.  Here are the notes.

LUDWIG/WALKENHORST

•Excluding Brazilians, Ludwig and Walkenhorst are the No. 1-ranked foreign pair on the provisional Rio 2016 Olympic ranking list as the pair has added at least 110 points to their point total at this week’s FIVB World Tour stop. With 150 Copacabana points still available, Ludwig and Walkenhorst could reach 6,000 as only Brazilians Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca (6,940) and Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas (6,870) have more points.  Since Brazil has already secured its two berths in the Olympics via winning the 2015 world championships (Agatha/Barbara) and being the host country (Talita/Larissa), the Ludwig/Walkenhorst partnership ranks ahead of Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands (5,620) as the No. 1 foreign team with three more Rio qualifying events left in the United States (Cincinnati, …

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