Organisers had been forced to revise the tournament format after heavy snowfall at the Italian venue led to matches being abandoned yesterday.

Main draw qualifiers were placed in four pools, with the top two in each progressing to the quarter-finals.

Amorosi, Marinucci and Di Risio topped Pool D, the trio beating Brazil’s Marcio Henrique Barroso Araujo, Gilberto Godoy Filho and Gabriel Heilborn Gouveia in their first match.

The Italians triumphed 5-15, 16-14, 15-13.

The home team then won 15-13, 15-13 against Cameroon in their second tie to emerge pool winners, with Brazil ending second.

Russian teams topped the standings in both Pool B and C, with Poland and Slovenia ending runners-up.

United States won Pool A to progress to the last eight, with Austria clinching the last quarter-final place after ending second.

In the women’s competition, teams from Argentina, Slovakia, Russia and the United States were among the pool winners.

They were joined by runners-up the Czech Republic, Italy, Japan and Poland in the quarter-finals.

Competition will conclude tomorrow.

The event follows the inaugural World Tour leg at Wagrain-Kleinarl in Austria last week.

The FIVB is promoting the discipline in the hope it may one day be added to the Winter Olympic programme.

The governing body is hopeful of having snow volleyball included as a demonstration event at next year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne.