ristiansand, Norway, August 29, 2008 - Brazilian Joao “Billy” Maciel and Bruno Oscar Schmidt won their fourth straight match and qualified for the Otera Open “final four” on Sunday.. Silver medallist from Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Pablo Herrera of Spain and his partner Raul Mesa, was the last obstacle. Maciel/Bruno got their “final four”-berth with a 23-21, 18-21 and 15-13 win in 67 minutes.

- This is just too good to be true, says Maciel and Bruno, knowing they have got a great opportunity to pick some extra World Tour points for the next tournaments. It’s a tough life being number seven or eight on the Brazilian beach volley ranking. To get among the three teams automatically qualified for the Main Draws, every rankingpoint is important.

The second fourth-round match was as astonishing as the first one. Austrian Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst, thirteenth-seeded in the tournament, won a battle against compatriots and eight-seeded Clemens Doppler and Peter Gartmayer with 17-21, 25-23 and 15-13 in 73 minutes. Gosch/Horst gained their second “final four”-berth, the first one from Aland in 2007, finishing third.

From contender’s bracket to the medal matches on Sunday came teams from Spain and New Zealand. Seventh-seeded Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Raul Mesa of Spain gained a “final-four” berth with a 22-20, 21-17 win over first-seeded Harley Marques Silva/Pedro Solberg Salgado of Brazil, while tenth-seeded Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman won 2-1 (25-23, 19-21, 15-10) over Doppler/Gartmayer of Austria.

Still this has been a great week for Austria, with bronze medals to Stefanie and Doris Schwaiger, Gosch/Horst in men’s “final-four” play Sunday and Doppler/Gartmayer placing fifth.