With Chris McHugh and Damian Schumann arriving on the Qantas charter from Cairns in the early hours of 18 July and Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe landing 24 hours later from Switzerland, both were eager to get their first taste of the Olympic venue.

Walking onto the central court for Damian Schumann and Chris McHugh as the first male Olympic beach volleyballers for Australia since Beijing 2008 was a surreal moment.

“It was awesome getting out there on the sand,” Schumann said. “It’s the Olympics, playing with the rings all around us was incredible, and this venue is so impressive.

“You can’t help but having such a buzz training in a colosseum like stadium. The ball moves a bit differently, the wind is different in such a big stadium, it’s great to get in and get used to the main court.

“You gain confidence from training beforehand, but it will all come down to how we attack each game mentally on game day.”

McHugh enjoyed his first hit out, fuelled by some Aussie creature comforts back in the Village headquarters and support from back home.

“The greatest thing about Aus HQ – the nutrition service, the fit out, is all amazing, but the Melbourne-trained barista who’s living here in Japan is doing a phenomenal job,” McHugh said. “He’s getting flogged, he must have done 500 coffees yesterday, he’s plugging through. It’s the biggest creature comfort, it’s saving everybody.

“I’m facetiming the family pretty regularly, my son Jack is loving looking at the autonomous buses – he’s more interested in looking at the driverless buses than at me. Spending some good time and sharing the Olympic experience with them over facetime is really valuable and they’re with me every day.”

“The stadium is phenomenal, the Japanese organisers have really thought of everything. I’m really looking forward to playing on Saturday against the number one team in the world and giving it a red hot shake.”

Each team is given one ‘familiarisation’ session on the main show court and one on the warm up court, in addition to their normal sessions on the training courts.

World number five pair Artacho del Solar and Clancy wasted no time in getting a hard session in at their Olympic venue, using their familiarisation session on the warm up court to train and play against World Champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada.

“The venue is spectacular, it’s great to get our first session in,” Clancy said. “The sand quality is really great – it makes a big difference to the type of game style you can play. It's definitely going to bring out the weapons in our game.

“Mariafe and I have had that moment of seeing the rings and being in this Olympic venue,  acknowledging just how special this moment is to be here at the Olympics. This is what we play for, it’s what we love.”

“It’s fantastic to get to hit against such high quality opposition, we have a great relationship and it’s a fantastic way to get into Olympic tournament mode with this hit out tonight.”

Artacho del Solar and Clancy will take to the centre court for their second familiarisation today, and kicking off their campaign against Cuba on Sunday, while Schumann and McHugh take on Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sørum on Saturday.