Spike in competition

The battle lines are drawn, now all the nation's best beach volleyballers need to do is dig deep into their bag of sand-based tricks as championship glory goes on the line in the Mount Maunganui Open.

Held at Mount Maunganui's Main Beach this weekend, the third National Beach Tour event of the summer promises to deliver competition at its finest with some of the sports up-and-coming talent mixing it with the pros.


Emily Johnston and Kiana Tawa flying high above the beach and the net ahead of the Mount Maunganui Open. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

Not only will the country's top 24 men's and women's teams battle for the title but valuable ranking points, helping them qualify for next month's NZ Beach Volleyball Open at the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland.

Volleyball NZ beach volleyball tour director Tim Cleaver says the tournament caps off a busy week on the beach with the Volleyball NZ National Age Group Beach Championships wrapping up earlier.

Once again all eyes will be on Mount locals Mike Watson and Sam O'Dea in the men's division, fresh from title winning success across the ditch.

The reigning Oceania champions took out the second leg of Australia's National Beach Volleyball Series in Surfers Paradise last weekend while the No.1 Kiwi women's pairing of Shaunna Polley and Julia Tilley placed fifth.

But Tim isn't ruling out the sport's young brigade for an upset with a number of the U19 teams looking to back up from the age group champs.

These include the women's pair of Alice Bain and Bex Story, U19 pairing of Emma Flynn and Kiana Tawa – who have already recorded top eight finishes on the National Tour this year – and the U19 boys pairing of Kahurangi Robinson and Perry Preston.

'We have had a lot of our top Under 19 teams that have just had a tour to Australia, so they haven't played on other national tour events and will be looking to take a few scalps.

'They are getting plenty of experience and hopefully some decide to take on the older players.”

This afternoon sees the qualification tournament get underway before officially starting tomorrow. The competition runs 8.30am-6pm both Saturday and Sunday.

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