Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Bulawayo Volleyball Association (BVA) has opened registration for the inagural Pre-Beach Volleyball Series Tournament that is slated for September 21-22 at Busters Sports Club, Hillside.
BVA vice chairman Munya Chigudu said their objective was to grow the sport of beach volleyball in the city.
“We are inviting people from schools , institutions and community to come and play on a social and semi professional platform in a bid to market the sport of beach volleyball,” said Chigudu.
Bulawayo is exposed to the more formal six-a-side version of volleyball but beach volleyball is heading for greater heights both as a recreational sport and as a competitive discipline.
Registration fees have been pegged at $30 if a pair is made up of school children, $40 if the pair does not feature a school child and $50 for teams that are not from Bulawayo.
Beach volleyball is mainly played in Harare where it took root after an exhibition at the Zimbabwe National Youth Games in Marondera in 2010.
It’s played by two teams of two players each on a sand court divided by a net. As in indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent’s side of the court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent.
A team is allowed up to three touches to return the ball across the net, and individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively except after making a block touch.
The Zimbabwe Volleyball Association (ZVA) and the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) have lined up a beach volleyball referees’ course in recent months aimed at improving the standard of the game in the country. – @innocentskizoe.