TASS recently helped support the GB University Beach Volleyball team leading up to and during the 5th World University Beach Volleyball Championships, Alanya, Turkey, 15-20th June.

TASS Athletes Seain Cook, Chris Gregory, Jake Sheaf, Josh Randall, Elizabeth Smith and TASS Alumni Rachel Turner were all competing for GB in Turkey.

Seain Cook has done a brief report on the Championships:

Thanks to TASS, Chris and I arrived in Alanya a few days before the start of the championships to acclimatise to the scorching sun and warm sands. We were in a confident mood having won the Student Beach Cup in Bournemouth at the start of June. In the days leading up to the championships we worked with our fellow GBR players (Jake and Josh), as well as getting some sets against teams representing Turkey and Hong Kong.

All the athletes were gathered in the harbour area for the opening ceremony; it was great to walk into the arena behind the British Flag. Several speeches and dancing displays followed and the games were officially opened.    

We had been drawn in a group with Poland, Hong Kong, a team we had lost to in training and Spain. Our first match was against Poland.  We just did not compete in this match losing 2-0.  Our second game of the day was against Hong Kong. Again we started badly losing the first set 21-14, but we then got ourselves fired up for the second winning it 21-11. The third set was tight though we were always slightly ahead and won the set 15-10. Our first international victory together.

Day 2, last pool match versus Spain. We played really well in the first set. At 18-18 a referee decision against us disturbed our rhythm, and the resulting errors gifted the Spanish the set. We could not get our competitiveness back and the second set drifted away losing 21-11.  The pool play completed, the competition went into double elimination (lose two games and you were out). Our first round game was against China. The Chinese tactics worked well concentrating on Chris and not blocking. We simply could not side out, and gave away too many errors. Lost 2-0.

Day 3. Our opponents France, we had to win. We were told to relax in the game and try and enjoy the game more. We enjoyed the match, but again too many errors allowed the French to win through 2-0.

The tournament was great to play in, though the lack of experience of playing high level matches let us down. We showed that we can compete but just did not have the consistency to challenge teams, and need to work on our ability to re-focus on targets after errors.  Many friends were made through this competition and we look forward to meeting and competing against them at further championships.

Thanks to TASS for the continuing support and help with our training as we work our way on to the International circuit and continue our Olympic journey.

Seain Cook

Read Seain's full report and see pictures from the Championships by downloading the file at the bottom of this page.