It’s not always a beach
ASSURED a Commonwealth Games medal, Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann smile at the irony of it all.
Today’s gold medal game is a chance for the Australian beach volleyball pairing to shine in front of a boisterous home crowd on the picturesque Coolangatta Beach.
But Schumann says, just like for wannabe golf and tennis pros, life on tour isn’t all it seems.
“It’s not an easy game to get good at, you have a lot of losses and people drop off and we’ve both been through a lot of really tough times,” he said.
“Travelling on the world tour, putting up a lot of cash, losing money while your mates are buying houses ... everyone sees the glamorous sort of end product, but there’s a lot that goes on.
“If you’re in the top 10 or 20 life’s cruisy but otherwise week-to-week ... you’re sleeping on mates’ floors and you do it for the love.”
The pair have made the most of what is the sport’s Commonwealth debut, dominating English pair Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf 21-13 21-16 in yesterday’s semi-final.
They will play Canadians Samuel Pedlow and Sam Schachter, who beat New Zealand 21-18, 21-15 in the other high-quality semi-final.
The new men’s pairing will aim to qualify for Tokyo’s Olympics together for the first time and see the Gold Coast debut as the biggest thing for the sport since Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst won gold at Sydney 2000.
“Overseas we play in grandstands much bigger than this and are usually getting abused by 10, 11,000 people,” McHugh said.
“It’s nice to be on the opposite end and do it in front of family and friends. “The sport bottomed out after a spike following Sydney ... this gives it that adrenaline shot in the arm it needs.”
Australia’s beach volleyball women will join the men in gold medal action today after a tense semi-final win against Vanuatu last night.
The previously untroubled pairing of Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy were pushed by Miller Pata, Linline Matauatu and some vocal Vanuatu supporters at Coolangatta.
But the Australians defied some nerves and plucky opponents to win 21-19, 16-21, 15-9 and set up a final against Canada’s current world No.1 duo Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes.