What has happened today in Perth is beyond any volleyball dream. The harmonious mix of three disciplines of the game under the bright blue skies of Perth with hundreds of people actively participating in the Scottish Open and supporting our new generation of beach volleyball athletes is the highlight of a successful year for Scottish Volleyball.
The level on the beach competitions has clearly improved since Friday as most players got accustomed to the sand courts and wearing their new sand feet allowed them to problem solve and maximize their performances.
There were some memorable games today for all 6 nations participating with games being decided on the tie-breakwith new players giving a reminder to the coaches of what they are capable of. Above all, the games were played with intensity but never without fair play and good sportsmanship.
As the tournament progresses to its last day, Scotland is not the only country to be feeling the positive impact of this competition.Michael Konstantinou head coach of Wales said “so far the setting is beautiful and we couldn’t have wished for better weather. I would like to wish Wales best of luck for this historic first appearance in an international beach event.
I see growing of the sport and it becoming more accessible with more urban beach volleyball being built. This Saturday saw our men’s team reaching a place in the final 8 best teams of the completion, which is more than we hoped for”.
Colin Paterson head coach of the women for Scotland highlighted that this is a fantastic opportunity for beach volleyball to show case our sport to the whole of Scottish volleyball as the open tournament attracts more than 1000 players. It is a great opportunity to obtain FIVB points to kick start ourqualification chances for the Commonwealth Games and at the moment the results have been very positive.
While head coach for the Scottish Men Barry McGuigan explained that a lot of his players have been trying to learn the game for the past few weeks and get some success from the things they had been working on. He added that is great to see the transformation of indoor players into beach performance players in such a short period of time. For the players this can be a stepping stone provided they have the continuous support to allow them to break through.
Tomorrow we will have the last participation matches followed by the semi finals. The game will be at 10:30am with two exciting games between the Scottish pair Cook /Miedzybrodzki vs Ewing/Gray on court 1 while Scott/Stewart from Northern Ireland will be competing with the impressive Luxembourg team Meres/Lazzarin
The women’s final is scheduled at 2:30pm and the men final is at 3:30pm. Scotland has high hopes for medals and points while respecting at the same time all of its opponents. Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg and San Marino have earned this respect with the good performance of their well-drilled teams. Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.