POSTED: Thursday August 27th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Final Stop of the AVP Crocs Tour Hits Chicago With Bonus Semifinal Coverage on Universal Sports

Kerri Walsh will return for her fourth 2009 tournament appearance with Olympic bronze medalist and beach volleyball legend Holly McPeak as her partner.

 
  NEW YORK- August 27, 2009- NBC Sports presents the last
regular season stop on the AVP Crocs Tour with the AVP Crocs Cup
Championship Kentucky Grilled Chicken Chicago Open this weekend.
Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh will return for her fourth 2009
tournament appearance with Olympic bronze medalist and beach volleyball
legend Holly McPeak as her partner. NBC Sports will broadcast live
high-definition coverage of the men’s final on Saturday and the women’s
final on Sunday each beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.



The Crocs Cup awards $75,000 in bonus money to the top four teams of
each gender based on their top-10 2009 finishes as a team through this
weekend. Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, the leading men’s team, have
already locked up the $45,000 first-place bonus.



Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs have dominated the women’s bracket
this season winning eight AVP Crocs Tour events and are the tour’s
point leaders. Jen Kessy and April Ross have taken three AVP titles and
a World Championship. On the men’s side Beijing Olympic gold medalists
and the tour’s point leaders Dalhausser and Rogers look to not only win
the tournament, but take home the AVP Crocs Cup.



NBC’s PAUL SUNDERLAND ON WALSH AND MCPEAK: “Holly is always fit and
ready to go and will be really excited to play with the two-time Gold
Medalist .Who gets to come out of retirement and pick up a partner like
Walsh?”



SUNDERLAND ON DALHAUSSER AND ROGERS: “Really bad news for everyone that
Phil and Todd have found a renewed focus as the season winds down. Todd
Rogers told me at Hermosa that he thought their season had been ‘Sub
Par’. He pointed to a post Olympic Games letdown. They had been
vulnerable, but no more. I would be surprised if they don’t run the
table”



NBC’s beach volleyball powerhouse broadcast duo Chris Marlowe and Paul
Sunderland will call the action with Heather Cox reporting from the
sidelines.



COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:

Universal Sports will broadcast semifinal coverage for the Cup
Championship in Chicago and will re-air all 4 hours of the finals after
the live broadcast on NBC. UniversalSports.com will also live stream
each semifinal event with on-demand video of the semifinals and finals
available online. For more information on air times go to
UniversalSports.com.



GOLDEN LEAGUE TRACK AND FIELD, SUNDAY, 1 PM ET

 NBC Sports presents coverage of the fifth stop of the Golden League
Track and Field Series this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET from Zurich,
Switzerland. Coverage highlights Jamaican Olympic gold medalist and
World Champion Usain Bolt, who recently set two world records at the
World Track and Field Championships in Berlin, and other world class
track stars including fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell.



The Golden League Track and Field competition is a season long campaign
to claim the $1 Million prize offered by the AF Golden League. Athletes
are required to win all six meetings in the series to acquire a piece
of the purse. If no athlete can win all six events and claim the $1
Million, then anyone with five victories will share half the original
$500,000 prize.



The four athletes still in the running for the $1 million are Olympic
gold medalist and 400m World Record holder Sanya Richards (USA), World
and Olympic record holder in the 5000m and 10,000m  Kenenisa Bekele
(ETH), reigning Olympic gold  medalist pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva
(RUS) and Beijing Olympic silver medalist Kerron Stewart (JAM).



Commentary will be provided by Ato Bolden, Lewis Johnson and Dwight Stones.




       Members of the media can get more information about NBC
Universal and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web
site at www.nbcumv.com.

# # #

Keywords · NBC · Kerri Walsh · Holly McPeak · Universal Sports

Name: Lyndsay M Iorio
Organization: NBC
Email:
Phone: +1.212-6642160
URL: http://www.nbcuni.com

Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.