Beach Blacks rise above

The top two beach volleyball teams in the country proved their worth in Nelson over the weekend.

Tahunanui Beach played host to the Nelson Super Slam which brought Beach Blacks and Beach Ferns to our sands.

The division one finals saw contrasting games as the women’s pair of Julia Tilley and Shaunna Polley were made to work hard against fellow New Zealand squad mates Olivia MacDonald and Alice Zeimann, winning two of the three-set match.

After dropping the first set, Shaunna and Julia recovered to win 2-1 (15-21, 22-20, 15- 9) in a thriller to maintain their top ranking. It was one-way traffic in the men’s final, however, as defending champions, Michael Watson and Johann Timmer defeated North Harbour’s Tom Hartles and Alani Nicklin 2-0 (21-13, 21-15).

Nelson Bays Volleyball development officer Josh Ovsenek says there was some quality play on display and was hopeful it would inspire some future beach superstars.

“It was a great atmosphere, there were about 300 people surrounding the court and Nelson turned on the weather.”

Nelsonians also managed to make their mark on court.

The second division was won by locals Janek Wiesenack and Armins Vensberg, while Giles Black and Roy Ching finished fifth in division one.

Josh is hopeful the tournament will return in 2021.

He says the Super Slam has kicked off what is set to be a massive season of beach volleyball in Nelson.

“We had a huge turnout last Monday (January 4) for the Kaiteriteri Beach Bash with 32 teams across five divisions.”

This event flowed into the start of the Wednesday night summer beach league which saw 20 pairs competing in week one.

“With more time and after bodies coming back after holidays, and with the pro tour, we are hoping that might increase.”

To join the Nelson social beach volleyball league contact Nelson Bays Volleyball at www.facebook. com/volleynelsonbays