Special report: 2011 brings a new hope for Australian Beach Volleyball
It was another unsuccessful year for Australian Beach Volleyball as the Aussie duos failed to create any spark on the scene. The beach volleyball teams were down with poor performance throughout the year. In fact, the sport of beach volleyball has really
suffered during the past few years. The Kangaroo teams have rarely enjoyed the limelight in a long time. The players of both genders progressed at slow pace and faced a lot of sponsorship problems.
It was long ago that the Australian women’s duo of Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook earned good name for country. They clinched bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and continued their effort to go higher in ranking. They staged an incredible show
at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and pulled off victory in gold medal match. Since then, a decade has passed but no Australian female beach volleyball player has been able to reach the highest level. To date, Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook are the only ones from
Land Down Under, who possess medals.
Quite similarly, the men’s division have had the same problems. The Aussie players had a little impact on the international competitors. Australia’s Julien Prosser and Mark William settled for fourth position at the 2004 Athina Summer Games. Likewise, the
pairing of Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack worked out some good performance in 2007 and cracked the top three at the world titles. Otherwise, there is hardly any achievement of Australian players worth mentioning.
Nonetheless, the Australian Volleyball Federation has never lost hope. They are always in search of good players, who can bring a change and shake off the bad impression of Australia in beach volleyball. Since the country has most beautiful beaches and there
is a plenty of potential in Australia, the Australian Volleyball Federation is struggling to raise a good crop of players.
Recently, the 21-year old Josh Court has gained popularity. He is the young aspiring star of Australia, who has been paired with Michael Snart and the duo has a lot of determination to save country’s reputation. They have proved their endeavours by making
good progress at the national level and now they have set their eyes on the bigger titles. Court said that it will take them some time to be able to face strong teams such as USA and Brazil but they will keep up the good work and crop out good results.
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