News “Now the best phase is starting: the operational phase,” said Luiz Augusto, as he looked ahead to next week’s volleyball test event Rio 2016’s venue general manager for the Maracanã complex expressed the excitement building in the organising committee as it prepares for an intense series of 44 competitions between now and May 2016 These competitions will allow Rio 2016 to test operations and train staff at venues that will host the sports during the Games themselves, fine tuning all preparations After the first Rio 2016 test event – last year’s Aquece Rio International Sailing Regatta – volleyball is next, with the World League final round taking place between 15 and 19 July at the Maracanãzinho, the home of the sport in Brazil “It’s a mega-event, the most important competition of the year for volleyball, featuring the best six teams in the world We’re going to start testing on a grand scale,” said Luiz Augusto These teams will be the current world champions Poland, the USA, Italy, Brazil, Serbia and one more yet to be defined The event is organised by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) in partnership with the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV) The Rio 2016 Organising Committee will be working strictly in the operation of the competition area, which includes preparation of the court, public entertainment, doping tests and results technology (although the final results remain the responsibility of FIVB)  “The event is theirs (FIVB) and is the culmination of all the previous stages of the World League,” said Luiz Augusto “Therefore, the role of the committee is limited Our aim is to make the most of the opportunity to train the 23 members of staff from six departments and 41 partners (who will work at the event), plus 35 volunteers who will undertake a detailed visit of the venue before the tournament ”   The volleyball test event is one of 15 that are under the responsibility of their sport’s respective federations, and in these the Rio 2016 Organising Committee’s focus will be concentrated on the competition areas In addition, there will be 24 competitions that are organised by Rio 2016, in which various other aspects will be alternately tested, such as transport and security There will be another five events under the joint command of the federations and Rio 2016, that aim to simulate the actual events that will be staged during the Olympic and Paralympic Games One these events will be the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships, at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas on 5-9 August, for which tickets are now on sale The Rio 2016 test event programme is being overseen by general manager Delphine Moulin “If the objective is to test, then the people who will operate the Games are the ones who need to test,” she said “Because of this, I view the test events as a delivery of the entire committee This is a different approach to previous organising committees, which brings more difficulty, but will be more effective ”The test events will bring together about 7,000 athletes – many of whom will be coming to Rio for the first time – and 12,000 volunteers Some of the events will be ticketed, while others will not be open to spectators Mounlin stressed that it was important to understand the nature of the programme “The name says everything: it’s a warm up,” she said “The athletes and the public need to understand that we are rehearsing in order to stage the best possible Games The sailing event met its objective perfectly, to test the integration of government partners and the internal operations of the committee We learned a lot, we will do better now and even better the next times It will be a natural evolution ”