Coast’s volleyball spike
THE Gold Coast is set to become the hub of Australian volleyball competitions, with the region set to host four major tournaments in 2021.
The action starts on Saturday and Sunday with the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour finals at Coolangatta.
The Gold Coast is also set to host the Australian Beach
Volleyball Schools Cup, Australian Youth Beach Volleyball Championships and Australian Volleyball Schools Cup.
The next generation of Olympic indoor and beach volleyballers will have the chance to take part in events designed to help develop players and provide competition
pathways. Launching next month will be the inaugural Australian Beach Volleyball Schools Cup, which is the newest event on the Volleyball Australia calendar.
Volleyball Australia CEO Andrew Dee said the Gold Coast was the ideal destination to host beach and indoor volleyball competitions
for both the emerging and elite talent.
“Volleyball Australia is thrilled to be working with Tourism and Events Queensland and Major Events Gold Coast to deliver a jam-packed national calendar for our high performance and junior talent programs,” Dee said.
“We feel very fortunate to
be able to deliver national level events in a COVID safe way given that so many sports national competitions have been impacted since the virus outbreak.”
The Australian Beach Volleyball Tour finals are the culmination of the four-stage series that has been held across the nation.
THE 37th annual Kirra Teams Challenge has kicked off at Duranbah on the southern end of the Gold Coast.
One of the longest-running boardriders competitions in the world, 36 teams from across Australia have arrived in Coolangatta to compete for the coveted Kirra Eagle Trophy.
Despite the 2020 event being called off due to COVIDrelated travel restrictions, the event is held in such esteem that the best surfers in the country turn out to represent their club colours.
This year is no exception with former world tour surfers and elite up-and-comers battling for club glory.
The event began on Friday in small but clean conditions and it didn’t take long for the fireworks to start.
Jackson Baker, from Merewether in NSW, has just been announced as the winner of the wildcard entry into the first event on the Australian leg of the World Championship Tour, and he demonstrated why with a convincing win in the second round of the day.
All eyes were on heat four with three-times world champion Mick Fanning, representing Kirra Surfriders Club, up against Mitch Parkinson, who was surfing for local arch rival Snapper Rocks.
The heat didn’t disappoint with Fanning jumping out to a solid lead while Parkinson strategically opted to surf a separate sandbank down the beach.
With just a minute to go in the heat and requiring an excellent score to upset Fanning, Parkinson paddled into a clean wave and surfed it exceptionally well.
The crowd waited for the scores to be announced but Parkinson was just short of the total needed.
Another highlight was 11year-old Lennox-Ballina surfer Max McGillivary putting on an inspiring performance against competitors almost twice his age, delivering a total heats score of 14.16 out of 20 and becoming the youngest heat winner in the contest’s history.
The free action continues on Saturday and Sunday.