We delve into the digits behind the first Major of 2016

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The last time a beach volleyball event was held in Hamburg, Laura Ludwig won a gold medal on home sand. Photo Credit: Joerg Mitter.

If you’re like us and you can barely keep a lid on your excitement ahead of next week’s smart Major Hamburg – you’ll love these geeky facts and figures we’ve put together specially to mark this crucial opening Major Series event of the summer…Enjoy!

1 – First things first, the smart Major Hamburg is the first stop of the Major Series in 2016!

64 – The total number of teams competing in the main draw – 48 of which automatically qualify without the need for qualification matches.

192 – Across the week, and not including country quota play-offs, the number of matches that will be played…

4 – …if every game took 30 minutes, that’s 96 hours of beach volleyball action…the equivalent of four straight days of digging and diving. Now that’s entertainment!

168 – Did you know that Hamburg is the 168th different location to host a FIVB event? Nope, neither did we! But it is only the second city in Germany after Berlin to host an FIVB tournament.

2008 – The last time Hamburg held a beach volleyball tournament came eight years ago during the European Championships. Holland’s Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil won the men’s gold medal, while there was home success for Germany as Laura Ludwig and Sara Niedrig triumphed in the women’s draw.

16 – The number of German men’s and women’s teams that will compete at the Major – seven of which have been given a pass to the main draw. Nine teams will do battle in the qualification rounds.

800,000 – The total prize fund in US Dollars up for grabs, split 50/50 between the genders. The gold medalists share USD 57,000 each. Even those teams who compete in the Pool Play receive a minimum USD 4,000. Not bad, huh?

400 – That’s the amount of ranking points the winning team will receive. If you compete in qualification but fall at the final hurdle teams still net 80 ranking points.

115,940* – Our army of beach volleyball fans continues to grow on our official Facebook page! Make sure you click that little ‘Like’ button and keep in touch with the tournament like the many thousands of clever people have already.

35 – The number of different nationalities entered into the draw, making the tournament a truly international feast of beach volleyball.

15,000 – No team are playing further away from home than Vanuatu pair Linline Matauatu and Miller Pata. It’s over 15,000km from the Vanuatu capital Port Vila to Hamburg.

1,800 – The amount in tons of sand delivered to the Rothenbaum Stadium in time to turn the tennis stadium into Germany’s biggest sandbox.

6 – The total number of medals won from six tournaments in 2016 by Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross. They head to Hamburg as one of the in-form teams on the tour.

16 – Once the tournament has finished it’ll just be little over two weeks – 16 days to be precise – until we rock up for stop number two in Poreč!

*Chances are our number of Facebook followers have increased since we wrote this article – so what are you waiting for?!

Far away from home: Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu of Vanuatu will play in the smart Major Hamburg some 15,000km from their hometown. Photo Credit: Samo Vidic.