This article is from page 26 of the 2007-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
THE beach in Fanore was trans- formed into a scene more normally associated with California, the Mediterranean of Rio de Janeiro this weekend as it Clare played host to a leg of the Irish Beach Volleyball Championships for the very first time.
While the weather didn’t exactly help to set the scene, there was plenty of action on the sand to help warm the hundreds of spectators and par- ticipants and get them into the tropi- cal mood.
While indoor volleyball is a long time favourite among the Irish sport- ing fraternity, the sandier variety of the sport is fast become one of Ire-
land’s quickest growing sports.
“It was founded in Ireland in 1968 so we have been going for a good while. Beach volleyball is a lot new- er and we have only been involved in beach volleyball for the past five years or so and we have been getting very seriously into it over the past year or so,” said Paul McKeever, D1- rector of Development and Coaching at Volley Ball Ireland.
“We have a circuit going this year and Saturday was the first time that this circuit has come to Clare. Be- sides the men’s and women’s main competition there was also a casual court set up for people who have nev- er played before to come along and try out the sport.”
Beach volleyball is one of the
worlds fastest growing sports and the numbers playing in Ireland have more than doubled over the last five years.
‘Professional volleyball is played with just two people – it’s just two verses two, men and women. It’s been an Olympic sport since the 1986 Atlanta Olympics and at the last Ol- ympics it had the highest spectators numbers from any sport,” he said.
“It 1s huge worldwide. In fact we have a major show piece event com- ing up in Bray, County Wicklow later this week, where we build an artifi- cial court, sort of a hundred foot side sand amphitheater.
“Some of the best players from America, Australia and the UK will be over to compete over a couple of
days. There are a couple of guys from Ennis who have qualified for main competition in Bray this week.”
Unlike most of world beach volley- ball, a large amount of the competi- tions which take place in Ireland are played in less than ideal weather.
“If it lashes rain we will still play. The only thing that prevents us from playing is if there is lightning or something dangerous like that.” con- tinued Paul.
“You have to get used to playing in bad conditions in Ireland so yes, we play through the rain.”