Espinho, Portugal, February 15, 2009 - After 15 seasons of competing on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Portugal’s Miguel Maia still maintains the desire to compete on the international Beach Volleyball circuit as he enters the 2009 season with new partner seeking to make a “happy team inside and outside of the court.”

One of 18 players to compete in all six of the Beach Volleyball world championships, Maia and Pedro Rosas will team in 2009 as the pair will be Portugal’s top tandem when the SWATCH FIVB World Championships presented by ConocoPhillips begin at the end of June in Stavanger, Norway.

The flag-bearer for Portugal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Maia looks forward to the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Championships as he has “fond memories” of his best previous finish in the worlds at the 2003 Rio de Janeiro event.

“I keep in mind so well that world championship,” said Maia, who will turn 38 April 23 during the season’s opening event in Brasilia. “I remember that we won our first six matches in the competition to reach the semi-finals. There are some moments during my day that I still think about that competition. João and I were disappointed and frustrated that we didn’t have the opportunity to play the final two matches due to injuries. We knew that we were in a big moment and missed another opportunity to reach the podium in a prestigious event due to my right hamstring injury.”

Winner of two SWATCH FIVB World Tour events with Brenha in 1998 and 1999 in Belgium and Russia, respectively, Maia is looking forward to playing with the 29-year-old Rosas.

“Pedro has the right spirit to be in the world of Beach Volleyball,” said Maia, who competed in a record 134 SWATCH FIVB World Tour events with Brenha. "He is a person who likes training and has all needed skills to be my partner.”

Maia said his partnership with Brenha “was something special. We never had discussions or personal problems. We never traveled alone, we always dined together. There is no other partnership that lasted 15 years together in the world of Beach Volleyball. We were one of a kind.”

Only seven other men's or women's teams have topped 100 FIVB events together, including the Laciga brothers (Martin and Paul) of Switzerland (121), Shelda Bede/Adriana Behar of Brazil (120), John Child/Mark Heese of Canada (115), Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud of Norway (113), Daniela Gattelli/Lucilla Perrotta of Italy (106), Jorg Ahmann/Axel Hager of Germany (104) and Susanne Glesnes/Kathrine Maaseide of Norway (103).

With Brenha helping with transition, Maia said that “Pedro will have to adapt to the new reality, with a lot of people around him that will want to help him to improve his skills and make him stronger. Personally, I will try to pass all my experience to him, especially taking off the pressure of replacing João. I will try to make Pedro smiles and I want that he enjoys all good moments we will share.

With a new partnership, there will be “adjustments,” said Maia. “Since we both play the same position, we’ll need to make a very basic adjustment.  The style of the game will depend of our opponents. We are aware that we are small guys, so we will try to use some different tricks. The World Tour is hard and we are not scared about anything. Our goal is to play every match like a final.”

While Maia has played in 138 SWATCH FIVB World Tour events with his first in 1994, Rosas has been playing full-time on the international Beach Volleyball circuit since 2005 with 55 participations. Rosas’ best placement was a fifth at the 2008 Marseille stop with Jose Pedrosa where three of their matches were against teams that competed a month later in the Beijing Olympic Games.

When asked about preparing for the 2009 season, Maia feels his “age is a problem and it becomes more difficult each year to prepare for the season. Besides, I am continuing to play indoors and I have a high overload. However, I haven’t been injured in the last years and I believe I will get the rhythm quickly.”

As for injuries, Maia said he as been “very fortunate. By being injury-free, I have had the chance to play in indoor and on the beach. I watch the food I eat and I spend a lot of time relaxing and sleeping. Of course, I’m doing what I really love, playing Volleyball.”

As for the changes on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Maia said “the game is quite different. The main thing, the players are tall. This is an advantage that I can’t use.  The reduction of the court size was the other noticeable change. The game was more technical when I started, and now, it is much more physical. All these things didn’t bring advantages for me because as everybody knows, I’m a small guy, but I’m a fighter and I won’t give up the fight”.
 
After competing in the first three Olympic Beach Volleyball competitions with two fourths and a ninth, Maia was “disappointed” in not qualifying for Beijing. 

“Our presence in Beijing was always in ours mind,” said Maia, who also placed fourth at Atlanta 1996 and ninth at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games with Brenha. “We knew at the start of qualifying for Beijing it would be really hard.  We had some physical problems and we missed almost 50 percent of the competition which made our goals much harder to achieve.  We were disappointed to lose one more Olympic Games because we feel that we already are a part of the Olympic family and because we knew that our fans would be happy for our presence there.  During our career we felt that there was something that makes us transcend in biggest competitions and ours opponents knew that.”

In addition to competing in 510 SWATCH FIVB World Tour matches with 243 wins, Maia has teamed with Brenha to win eight Portuguese national titles as the pair has a street named after them in Espinho - Avenida Maia Brenha. Maia has also created a website to cover his Volleyball and Beach Volleyball career (www.miguelmaia.com).

Maia has also made a name for himself on the indoor court with 12 national titles along with competing in 178 international matches on the Portuguese national team.

After concluding his career, Maia will again team with Brenha to open an academy of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball while establishing a foundation to help needy people.

But before that, Maia still has an “eye” on the London 2012 Olympic Games. “That’s a beautiful question, but at same time treacherous,” said Maia about London. “I would like to be there, but now isn’t the right moment to think about it. First, we have to think in training, because we will have a lot of competitions to play. I just want to stabilize the partnership and make Pedro feel comfortable with our team. Our biggest and major goal is try to find quickly the pleasure in playing Beach Volleyball.  With the experience I have, I believe and hope we will be a happy team inside and outside of the court.”