Start of the second week of Swatch FIVB Stavanger 2009 beach volley tournament.. yes, second week! New formula this year for this special stop of the FIVB 2009 calendar: giving the great money investment from ConocoPhilips (probably before the Ekofisk problems 
) the local tournament has become a clear sponsor hostage, more about business than sport! At least, this is my point of view!
Less fields with official games, more focus to the central arena, larger it seems than the previous years, where there are more matches for a paying audience. And a different structure: no more qualification and pool main draw first phase, but straight to the pool phase.
And that meant a serious cut down in the entry list, resulting in NO Japanese teams, neither male nor female.. Giving that my main interest are the female Japanese teams, this 2009 beach volley tournament in Stavanger lost most of its interest!!!
I have been a little around anyway taking pics, especially with Nikon D200 and the nice lenses, but I will not spend too much time for volley this year. I regret I will not enjoy as the previous years, but there will be pictures coming.
For now I post pictures of who I really miss:
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| Miwa Asao, 浅尾美和 | Take Nishibori, 西堀健実 |
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| Shinako Tanaka, 田中姿子 | Eiko “Kae” Koizumi, 小泉栄子 |
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| Chiaki Kusuhara, 楠原千秋 | Mika Teru Saiki, 佐伯美香 |
