Gold Coast debut for NZ team

Women’s beach volleyball pair Kelsie Wills and Shaunna Polley have been named as New Zealand’s first female beach volleyball team to compete at the Commonwealth Games.

They have been selected following a successful international season which included a bronze medal performance at the 2017 Ulsan 1 Star World Tour Event in Korea.

Beach volleyball is making its Commonwealth Games debut at Gold Coast 2018 and 24-year-old Polley is excited to be one of the first New Zealanders to compete for her sport at the Games.

‘‘It’s a huge honour and it’s going to be pretty special to represent our country on the international stage against some great teams,’’ she said.

‘‘We’ve put in a huge amount of work to make it to this point so we’re really pleased to be named and we can’t wait to compete in the Commonwealth Games’’.

Polley has competed on the Gold Coast before and says the conditions can be tricky.

‘‘The sand’s really deep over there and that makes it harder to jump high so that’s a factor to consider and we’ll be training to mitigate that.’’

Originally from Hamilton, Wills, 25, who has played indoor volleyball professionally in France, is expecting stiff competition.

‘‘Australia, Canada and Vanuatu are some of the really strong teams but we’re up for the challenge and we’ll be ready for them.’’

Volleyball New Zealand chief executive Paul Cameron says the organisation is extremely pleased to have its first beach athletes selected for the games.

‘‘It’s a very exciting time for volleyball in New Zealand. We have an extremely high calibre of players.’’