U19 International Junior Beach Volleyball Championships

In its fourth year, the Inter-Beach International Junior Beach Volleyball Championships, held this past weekend in the Cardiff Beach Volleyball Centre, celebrates the aims of the event with the founder of the Inter-Beach events,  Tournament Director and Great Britain International coach and former player Denise Austin. Cardiff Beach Volleyball Centre has become the home for our Inter-beach.net events.

CBVC shares our vision to put the young athletes front and centre of the events, providing brilliant courts, streaming across three courts all weekend) with better weather it would have been six!) and a welcome approach to everyone who comes to share in the celebration of their children, their teams and their country.

It was great this year we had a men’s squad from Gibraltar and it was lovely to extend the event to countries travelling further afield. We hope to see this grow to accommodate even more small nations as we continue.

In total 64, Junior players from across England, SW England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Gibraltar competed for the title, 32 boys and girls each in a squad of four, and two teams in each squad competed in the dual event formula. The No.1 and No. 2 pairs from each squad compete and if they both win their matches the dual is over 2-0. However, if it is 1-1 in matches, a golden set to 15pts decides the winner.

The Golden Set formula was new to some coaches and the drama it creates is a fantastic way to create a pressurised event for the pre-performance pathway steps the young players are experiencing, coaches mixed up their teams for the golden sets which made it very interesting and added another dimension to the format.

Of the 112 matches forming the 56 duals,  13 duals went to the golden set, including both matches in the Boys and Girls Final. The finals were contested by Scotland and England. With Scotland women gaining their revenge against a very strong England combination, but with tough conditions on Sunday the Scottish tenacity rang out. ‘It’s exactly what young athletes need, experiencing the honour of representing their country and being able to pull wins out of the bag!’ In the men’s final Scotland took England to the Golden set but England had not dropped a match all tournament, when pushed to a golden set managed to clinch the title.

‘We love the formula and even though it’s nerve-wracking, once they experience the events, everyone is really embracing the pressure, the atmosphere and experience.’

Bronze medals were taken by Wales in the men’s and Scotland’s Second squad. The most improved squad this year was Northern Ireland.

‘It’s lovely to see players from the Junior International being selected for their first Beach International event, after not making the selection in previous years. It’s an event which sparks all the junior beach programmes and we hope to continue running for years to come.

‘The Inter-beach.net Junior International Beach Volleyball Championships are very much part of the pre-performance pathway for any athlete wishing to represent their country in the future at senior events’.

Numbers for selection can limit the opportunity to play for your country on the beach, only two players get to compete in a junior European or World championships, and depending on your proximity to beaches and beach clubs it becomes an even harder task. By creating this format we are aiming to help provide an exit route for developing programmes and their athletes, to help kickstart the desire and drive to play for your country.

A massive thanks and shout out to every single person who stepped up to help a little or a whole lot. Its a complete performance by everyone involved. We all pulled together to make a very unique experience for some very special athletes. From parents to coaches, to drivers, and managers and organisers and volunteers and referees. We all made it happen!

Denise Austin & Daniel Mulford