Facts
Beach Volleyball: Most accounts place the sport’s origin in Santa Monica, California (early 1920s), where the first Volleyball courts were put up on the beach at the Playground (Santa Monica). Families played 6 vs. 6.
1927: Beach volleyball became the principal sport in a French nudist camp
founded in Franconville (north-western suburb of Paris)
| ZONE 6 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP |
| KZN’s VIRGIN ACTIVE LIBERTE WIN GOLD AT ZONE 6 CHAMPIONSHIP |
Generous funding from the KZN Department of Sport and Recreation made possible the staging of the African Zone 6 Club Championship for men and women at the Tongaat Sports Centre from December 8-13. The top two teams from Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe locked horns with the South Africans for the two places available to Zone 6 for the African Club Championship scheduled for Blida, Algeria in March 2009. The Blida event is a qualifier for the World Championship which takes place in Japan at the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, fans who rocked up at the Tongaat Sports Centre for the week long spectacle rubbed their hands with glee as they were entertained with a visual feast of the best volleyball action on offer in the Zone. Defending champions from Botswana, BDF6 (Botswana Defence Force) and Mafolofolo made their intentions quite clear from the outset that the coveted silverware will be heading back to its rightful place in Maseru.
While both teams reached the finals with relative ease, they were however denied the glory of raising the winners’ trophy as Mofolofolo lost (3-2) to compatriots Kutlwano in an intensely fought 5 set thriller and BDF6 were outgunned by South Africa’s Virgin Active Liberte in straight sets (3-0) before a lively partisan crowd.
The women’s final was an all Botswana encounter with defending champions taking on challengers, Kutlwano whose “blitz-krieg” offensive strategy forced the former immediately on to the back foot and in the process conceded the first two sets with a (25-19;25-17) score line. Although Mafolofolo levelled matters (2-2) they failed to prevent their compatriots from taking the deciding 5th set (15-12), to become Zone 6 champions for the first time.
For Virgin Active Liberte reaching the final was more than just lifting the silverware, they were out to avenge the defeat they suffered at the hands of the defending champions, BDF6 earlier in the week in the round robin stage of the tournament. With middle blockers Kevin Veerajoo and Prenalen Govender unflinching in the heart of the Liberte defence, attacker Ricky Govender was in sizzling form tormenting the BDF6 blockers every time he connected with playmaker, Ryan “Spitz” Lahldas’ defence splitting sets. Govender single-handedly posted a morale boosting (25-20) first set win. The second set began with a scorching middle attack from Kevin Veerajoo that left the BDF6 players in a momentary state of paralysis. From that point on it was smooth sailing for the Tongaat team who went on to wrap up proceedings with a (25-19) score line.
A series of unforced errors and poor service especially by Lahldas and out of form attacker Nathan Ernest allowed BDF6 back into contention. Had it not been for prolific attacker, Ricky Govender the SA team could have conceded the set. With the scores levelled at (22-22) playmaker Lahldas turned to Govender who did not disappoint as he posted the three points that were needed (25-22) to lead his team to victory.
DONOVAN NAIR VSA PR/Media
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