Angolans Net SWATCH Main Draw Berth MARSEILLE, FRANCE, July 20, 2008 - Last August in Norway Angola’s Morais Abreu and Emanuel Fernandes set goals that appeared to be both easy and hard. The first goal was to improve the awareness of Beach Volleyball in their country by working with “young and old” alike to educate their fellow compatriots about the sport. The second goal was to play in the Beijing 2008 Olympics by competing for an African spot in the Summer Games by participating on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour. Goal No. 1 has been accomplished daily as both Abreu and Fernandes have worked the past 10 years to establish the sport in Angola while being crowned their country’s national Beach Volleyball champion seven times. The "difficult' Goal No. 2 was attained here Wednesday as the Abreu and Fernandes won a pair of men's qualifying matches at the US$350,000 World Series 13 to earn 60 points to give the Angolans 204 total points for their best eight SWATCH FIVB World Tour finishes since the start of the process in May 2007. At the start of play Wednesday, Abreu and Fernandes were 40 points behind South Africans Casey Augoustides and Patrick Flisberg, who had totaled 202 points for their best eight SWATCH appearances since May 2007. With the Angolans erasing a previous 18-point FIVB placement, Abreu and Fernandes advancement to the World Series 13 Main Draw earned the 40-year olds 42 more points with their wins over teams from the United Arab Emirates and Andorra. “I don't have words,” said Abreu after his final qualifying match Wednesday. “Everybody has their first time; this is the first time for an Angolan team. We are so very, very happy. We've been waiting for this moment. It's a dream for every athlete to be in the Olympics. This is important for my country because we were in a civil war for 30 years. But now sports in Angola are growing and if we are in the Olympics then we show the world we exist.” With their effort Wednesday, Abreu thinks the Angolan government “will give more money to the volleyball federation to develop young players. We have 2,000 km of beach and it is always summer there. We wish one day in the future to have an event in Angola. We have sympathy from all the teams, especially the tandems from Brazil, Portugal and Italy. They all help us with practice. We learned the game from them.” Childhood friends, Abreu is a businessman and Fernandes was a major in the Angolan military. While Fernandes comes from a volleyball background and has competed in Beach Volleyball events for 16 years, Abreu starting playing the sport 10 years ago with Fernandes. With no previous FIVB starts together prior to their first event last August in Kristiansand, Abreu and Fernandes competed for the first-time together internationally at the October 2006 Lusophony Games in Macau. Seeded ninth in the Lusophony Games’ Beach Volleyball competition, Abreu and Fernandes finished with a 2-2 record to place fifth with both of their loses to teams from Brazil and Portugal that eventually captured the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the inaugural event for Portuguese-speaking countries and territories. For the second-straight qualifying cycle for Olympic Beach Volleyball, men’s pairs from South Africa and Angola are competing for the continent’s spot in the Beijing 2008 Summer Games where eight finishes on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour are needed to earn a spot in the 24-team field. For the Athens 2004 Summer Games, the South Africa team of Colin Pocock and Gershon Rorich secured the continent’s Olympic berth over Mario Silva and Miguel Xisto of Angola. The South Africans posted a 2-2 Athens mark to place in the competition with a pair of pool play wins, including a 22-20 and 22-20 upset victory over Joao Brenha and Miguel Maia of Portugal, the fourth-place finishes in the first two Olympic Beach Volleyball competitions in Atlanta and Sydney.