RVB Juniors help England finish fifth in European Under-18 Beach Volleyball Championships
After five days of exciting competition, the young English beach volleyball pairing Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello (ranked 12th in Europe) from Richmond VB London, finished 5th in the 2017 CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship which ended on Sunday, 27th August in Kazan, Russia.
With a main draw of 32 teams England started the campaign in Pool E and won all three group matches beating Ringøen/Brekke NOR (2-0) ; Pedrosa/H. Campos POR (2-0), and Mazuras/Makaras LTU (2-0). The next phase of the competition was knock-out and in Round 16 the next opponent they won again was Sedlak /Manas CZE 2-0. The quarter finals proved more difficult playing against the No 2 seeds Tournier/Nicole FRA and lost 2-0. In the 5th and 6th play-off they played against Ringøen/Brekke NOR who they beat in their pool matches and won again 2-0 for 5th place.
RVB Chairman David Rijvers was full of praise for the young team, adding: “I’m absolutely delighted and so proud for the boys, family and Volleyball England. I’ve been in English Volleyball a long time and this is another historic milestone for Volleyball England where the twins Joaquin and Javier Bello will qualify to U19 FIVB World Championship Finals next year.
RVB has been growing a strong national junior beach volleyball programme in London and Surrey for male and female athletes and is also in discussions with partners to create a new world class 9 court beach facility (4 indoors) supported with further expert coaching and comprehensive scholarships at varies London & Surrey Universities partnering with RVB.
We have ambitious performance targets over the next four years and our training programme reflects this commitment investing in next new crop of junior players and continuing to develop our current talented athletes. Junior volleyball players can access daily training sessions and strength and conditioning sessions on a weekly basis. With the Olympic Youth Games next year it’s an incredibly exciting time for the Bello boys and RVB Beach!