A total of 24 men’s and women’s pairs bound for the Games will be in the field for the penultimate Major Series event of the 2015-16 FIVB World Tour calendar with action in the Austrian city scheduled to conclude on Sunday (July 31), just five days before the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony.

Home favourites Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst are the preliminary top-seeded men’s team, followed by The Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, and Canada’s Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton.

Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst are the team to beat in the women’s competition, while Poland’s Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek and fellow Germans Karla Borger and Britta Buthe are seeded second and third respectively.

Klagenfurt also hosted the final men’s and women’s FIVB World Tour event prior to the Athens 2004, the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In only one of those events, the men’s 2004 edition, did the eventual Olympic champions win in Klagenfurt. 

That honour went to Brazil’s Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos.

The format for this week's competition is the same for both genders with qualifying tournaments set to be held tomorrow for women and Wednesday (July 27) for men to determine the final eight teams for each 32-strong main draw.

On Wednesday and Thursday (July 28) for women and Thursday and Friday (July 29) for men, teams will be split into eight, four-team pools to play three matches.  

The top three teams in the eight pools will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds.

On Thursday and Friday for women and Friday and Saturday (July 30) for men, there will be three rounds of single-elimination.

The semi-finals and medal matches will be held on Saturday for women and Sunday for men.