South Africa’s top beach volleyball players will be competing at the Flying Fish Beach Volleyball tournament taking place between March 3 and 4 at Rhodes University. This will be the sixth event in the 2016/17 series and will be the only Eastern Cape tournament.
“Taking the Flying Fish Beach Volleyball brand to Eastern Cape is always exciting,” said Gershon Rorich, director of Beach Volleyball South Africa. “The sport is growing at a rapid speed and along with the promoters, Sports4U, and naming sponsor Flying Fish, we will continue in this fashion.”
The tournament has produced a number of exciting matches and a few surprises in the last two tournaments. The Czech-born pair of Martina Bonnerova and Sarka Nakladalova have won both the Stellenbosch and Cape Town Tens titles, defeating the country’s top-seeded duo of Lianne Vink and Dieke Hessels. Bonnerova and Nakladalova are definitely favourites and could reach their third successive final.
South Africa’s top-ranked pairing, Leo Williams and Grant Goldschmidt, will want to restore their reputation as tournament favourites. The Western Cape-based pair has the best winning percentage, an impressive 93 per cent, in this season’s Flying Fish Beach Volleyball series. Williams and Goldschmidt have played at all six tournament finals, losing two of them – Tshwane and Cape Town Tens tournaments.
