LIFE'S NOW AN OLMPIC BEACH FOR LONDON BOUND PALMER AND BAWDEN

BEACH VOLLEYBALL, JUNE 16, 2012: There were celebrations in Rome overnight with Australia’s top ranked women’s beach volleyball duo Becchara Palmer and Louise Bawden securing their place for this year’s London Olympics.

A four-year dream of qualifying for the 2012 Games came to fruition with their ninth place finish in the FIVB Swatch World Tour Event – the last tournament inside the Olympic Qualifying period.

For Bawden, 30, a member of Australia’s indoor women’s team in Sydney, it will be her second Olympics, 12 years between Olympic drinks and for Palmer, at 23, London will see her make her Olympic debut.

The pair have lived in and out of hotel rooms and suitcases touring the world inside the last two years, building up their combination, their reputation and their world ranking, which now sits at 14 – locking in their top 16 automatic Olympic Qualification place.

“It has been a long haul for girls who should be very proud of their efforts. I know everyone at Volleyball Australia certainly is. They have both worked very hard to achieve their dreams and they will now go into London full of confidence,” said Volleyball Australia’s High Performance Manager Matt Sebbens.

“With our men’s indoor team qualifying in Tokyo last week and now Bec and Lou, our focus will now continue to ensure Nat Cook and Tamsin Hinchley and our men’s beach team Chris McHugh and Josh Slack secure their places in next week’s Continental Cup qualifying tournament.”

The Adelaide-based AOS pairing of Palmer and Bawden bolstered their top 16 position with their fifth place finish in Moscow last week and secured it with their ninth place finish in Rome – both times bowing out to China’s number one ranked pairing of Xue and Zhang.

Fuzhou will be the venue for the Continental Cup tournament starting next week and if Cook and Hinchley and McHugh and Slack can win then they too will join Palmer and Bawden in London.

Failing that they will get one last chance at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Olympic Qualification tournament in Moscow.
If everything goes according to plan and Australia’s two teams qualify London would be Cook’s fifth Olympics, the third for Hinchley (formerly Tamsin Barnett) and the fourth for Slack.

Issued on behalf of Volleyball Australia by: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.