Blanton, Nygaard still top list for Athens...

Blanton, Nygaard still top list for Athens

Laguna Beach native Dain Blanton and playing partner Jeff Nygaard

finished tie for 17th last weekend at the Federation of International

Volleyball Tour’s Berlin Grand Slam beach volleyball event.

Despite the 17th-place finish at the Olympics qualifying

tournament, Blanton and Nygaard continue to hold down the No. 1 spot

among U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams vying for one of two U.S.

Olympic berths for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in August.

Blanton and Nygaard head the U.S. Olympics qualifying standings in

men’s beach volleyball with 2,296 points.

Dax Holdren and Stan Metzger currently are second in the standings

with 1,824 points.

Todd Rogers and Sean Scott, who tied with Blanton and Nygaard for

17th-place in Berlin, are No. 3 in the standings with 1,634 points.

The U.S. will send two men’s and women’s teams to Athens

The teams that will represent the U.S. will be determined by

taking a team’s best eight performances on the Federation of

International Volleyball beach volleyball tour

The qualification period takes place from Jan. 1, 2003 to July 11,

2004.

The 2004 Athens Olympic Games will feature a 24-team tournament to

determine the gold medalists.

Blanton teamed with Eric Fonoimoana to win the men’s gold medal at

the 2000 Sydney Games.

Should he and Nygaard qualify for the Athens Games, Blanton will

be seeking to become the first man to win back-to-back Olympic medals

in beach volleyball.

Bank of the West Beach Games set for July

The 2004 Bank of the West Beach Games will touch down in

Huntington Beach on July 36.

The games, anchored by the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing Presented by

O’Neill, will run through Aug. 1 at the south side of the pier.

Several Laguna Beach surfers will compete in the competitions.

The U.S. Open of Surfing is North America’s highest-rated

qualifying event. This year’s competition is expected to draw nearly

500 of the sport’s elite surfers from around the world.

Event coordinators said that last year’s attendance rose to an

international record 300,000 spectators over a nine day period.

In addition to reigning event champion Cory Lopez (Florida), this

year’s world-class men’s field features current and former world

champions Andy Irons (Hawaii) and Kelly Slater (Florida) along with

world-class talent like C.J. Hobgood (Florida), Tim Curran (Ventura),

Rob Machado (Cardiff), Taylor Knox (Carlsbad) and Shane Beschen (San

Clemente).

Anchored by Team O’Neill’s tube-riding veteran Rochelle Ballard

(Hawaii) and World Championship Tour rookie sensation Melanie Bartels

(Hawaii), the U.S. Open of Surfing women’s division features a

majority of world’s Top 16 and World Qualifying Series participants.

Key competitors include four-time world champion Lisa Andersen

(Florida), two-time event and former world champion Pauline Menczer

(Australia), Julia Christian (Carlsbad), Serena Brooke (Australia),

Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) and Holly Beck (Palos Verdes).

Other division competitions include the O’Neill U.S. Open of

Longboarding and Lost Pro Junior.