BEACH VOLLEYBALL: When you think of Beach Volleyball; sun, sand and good music may come to mind. But this Youth Olympic Games, Australia’s Beach Volleyball pairing of Phoebe Bell and Brittany Kendall will be hitting the sand under the cover of night- at least for their first three pool matches.
Bell-Kendall face Mukantambara-Uwimbazi (Rwanda) in their opening match on Sunday followed by Verasio-Hiruela (Argentina), Makroguzova-Rudykh (Russia), Joe-Daniel (Vanuatu) and Bernier-Cajigas (Puerto Rico) in a draw that was released yesterday.
Only their first three timeslots are confirmed, with two 8pm starts (Rwanda and Argentina) and one match at 7pm (Russia).
“We’ve never played at night before. Phoebe likes the idea but I’m not so sure yet- I think it might be alright being a little cooler,” 18-year-old Kendall said.
“It’s different lighting- you have artificial light and you have to get used to it,” Bell, 17, explained.
“We’re from Australia so we’re used to the heat and other countries aren’t so it could have given us an advantage to play during the day,” she added.
Interestingly, the Australians have drawn a similar pool to the one they faced at the recent U19 World Championships in Portugal where they played the same outfits from Russia, Puerto Rico and Argentina.
Their only triumph over these three pairs came against the Argentineans, but the Aussies were hampered by injury and arrive in Nanjing a fitter, stronger and more experienced combination.
“We’ll have a few tough matches but it’s a pretty good draw,” Bell said.
“We’re definitely more ready than we were at Junior Worlds- especially now that we have both fixed our injuries, we’re ready to go,” Kendall said with confidence.
For the Australian pair who hails from Brisbane (Bell) and Adelaide (Kendall), they are only getting stronger the more time they spend on sand together.
In the few weeks before the YOG they travelled to Portugal, the U21 World Championships in Cyprus and Denmark for a training camp.
They still have to pinch themselves now that they are here at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
“The training venue is awesome- we’re really loving it,” Kendall said.
“It’s really cool seeing the Olympic rings everywhere. We want to finish top two in our pool and hopefully inside the top five overall,” her partner, Bell added.
The Australians hope to finish inside the top two in their pool which will make their pathway in the single-elimination phase slightly easier.
Russia, Brazil, Canada and Germany will be some of the strongest teams, with Brazilian combination Ana Patricia-Eduarda imposing competitors- 16-year-old Eduarda Santos Lisboa made her debut last year and won silver at the U23 World Championships before taking gold at the U19 World Championships this year.
After the conclusion of pool play matches on August 22nd, the single-elimination rounds will start on August 24th leading to the women’s medal matches on August 26th.
Bell and Kendall are part of an Australian side of 89 athletes. Follow the Australian Olympic Team at Olympics.com.au and with @AUSOlympicTeam on social media.
Taya Conomos
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
