Kristiansand, Norway, August 10, 2010 – Four men's teams from Norway joined Brazilians Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in winning Country Quota men's matches here Tuesday to advance to the Qualification Tournament phase at this week's The US$380,000 Otera Open on the City Center courts.

The men's qualifier Wednesday will also advance eight Beach Volleyball pairs to Thursday's Main Draw where 24 pairs have automatic berths due to entry points and "wild cards". The Otera Open concludes Sunday with the men's semi-finals and medal matches as the winning teams for both genders will share the $30,000 first-place prizes.

Benjamin and Bruno earned a qualifying berth by defeating Rhooney Ferramenta and Moises Santos 21-18, 17-21 and 17-15 in 63 minutes. Earlier in the day, Ferramenta and Santos ousted Bruno de Paula and Fabio Magalhaes from the Otera Open by defeating their compatriots 21-18 and 21-14 in 41 minutes.

The Norwegian winners Tuesday gave the host country four more opportunities to qualify teams for the men's Main Draw were the pairs Eskil Holtan/Oyvind Wergeland, the Stromsvag brothers (Andres and Dag), Kim Hellum/Trygve Leite and Magnus Borge Johansen/Geir Eithun. Teams automatically placed in the Main Draw are Tarjei Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr, Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud and Oivind Hordvik/Iver Horrem.

Skarlund and Spinnangr posted the Scandinavian countries best result in a Norwegian SWATCH stop as the pair earned a silver medal last month at the Stavanger Grand Slam where they dropped the finale to Germany's David Klemperer and Eric Koreng. Skarlund and Spinnangr are currently the No. 17th-ranked FIVB team.

The 2010 Otera Open will also be the 200th FIVB event for Kjemperud, who only trails legendary Brazilian Emanuel Rego (204) as the player competing in the most international Beach Volleyball tournaments since the start of the circuit in 1987 on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Kjemperud and Hoidalen will be playing in their 133rd FIVB event to rank second to Joao Brenha and Miguel Maia in the number of team participations internationally as the Portuguese have totaled 134.

Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of the United States, who clinched the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour championship last week in Stare Jablonki, Poland, enter the Otera Open with seven gold medals finishes this season to tie a men's single-season international record for gold medals in a year.

Three Brazilian teams have won seven men's titles in a single-season, including Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos twice in 2004 and 2007. Roberto Lopes and Franco Neto established the record in 1995 with Emanuel and Jose Loiola matching it in 1999. With four "major"  titles to their credit this season by topping the podium in Italy, Norway, Switzerland and Poland, Dalhausser and Rogers' 11 Grand Slam career titles breaks the record of 10 set by Emanuel and Ricardo.