Korea 2.0

Jamie and I just got back from competing in 2 Korean exhibition tournaments occurring over 10 days (August 16-25). There were teams from Spain, Norway, Czech, Austria, Netherlands, New Zealand and Korea.
The first tournament was in Busan.

First Venue

The way the first tournament was organized was a little bit strange... The organizers only wanted 6 teams playing, 2 of them being Korean teams, so they drew seeds out of a hat for the remaining international teams. The thing was, there were 4 available spots and 7 teams hoping to play. We were lucky enough to draw a spot in the tournament. But Norway, Spain and China weren't so lucky. They had to sit this one out. Good thing we pulled a lucky ticket, because we ended up winning the first tournament! It felt really good to stand on top of that podium.

Immediately after the finals, we were supplied with Big Macs for lunch and herded on to a coach bus that was to take us to the next venue. Little did we know, it was going to be an 8 hour bus ride! That was fun.... 

When we finally got to Gyeongpo Beach, we had a day off before the second tournament started. This location was actually pretty cool, there was a boardwalk along the beach that we walked to get from our hotel to centre court. This tournament was set up in a double-elimination format. We went undefeated all the way to semis, where we lost Spain. Later on, we beat Norway to take the bronze.

This was such a fun experience, we got to play some great competitive volleyball and make new friends. I hope we get a chance to participate in these tournaments next year... even if that means it will be Jamie's 7th trip to Korea!

Sunset on a lake by our hotel

Celebratory waffles and gelato. Too good.

Mandatory post-tournament karaoke.
(Jamie and I won this competition too, with our rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody)

The Canadian Olympic Trials were held at Ashbridges Bay in Toronto on July 7th. The two matches determined which teams would be representing Canada at the London Olympics. 

Josh Binstock and Martin Reader qualified for the men.

And Annie Martin and Marie-Andree Lessard qualified on the women's side.

It was such an exciting day of awesome volleyball!

You can catch up with them on their blogs and websites:

http://www.lessardmartin.com/

http://martinreader.blogspot.ca/

http://www.road2london2012.com/http:/www.road2london2012.com/start-of-my-olympic-journal

The Beach Volleyball in London starts on Saturday, July 28. 

Here's a link to some of the info: http://www.london2012.com/beach-volleyball/about/

After the trials, Jamie and I got to spend some time off in Toronto, so I was able to catch up with friends. 

Dinner at the CN Tower with Austin

My roommate, Alex!

Vanessa's wedding shower :)


Then Jamie and I flew out to Vancouver where we set up camp in our second home... aka Mila's apartment. 

Mila and Jamie

We competed in the Vancouver Open July 14-15. 

Kitsilano Beach

Game plan 

It was a really successful tournament, we ended up coming in 2nd! 

Moscow, Rome, Home

Jamie at the courts in Moscow

                                                                                               



So after our tournament in Seoul, we flew to Moscow and Rome for the last two events on the World Tour in an effort to qualify for the Olympics. We didn't manage to pull out a good enough result at either event, so our 2012 Olympic run is officially over. 

The event in Rome was pretty interesting because not only was the venue amazing and beautiful, we were so close to qualifying and becoming the 2nd ranked team in Canada. Our first match was in the centre court stadium against Japan. We did our regular warm up and when the ref blew the whistle for the match to start, Japan still had not shown up! That meant we won by default and advanced to the last round of qualification. This time we were matched up against the top team from Great Britain. If we had managed to win that game, we would have earned enough points to move up from being the 3rd ranked team in Canada to 2nd. 

Rome venue

Trevi Fountain

As it stands, Annie Martin and Marie-Andree Lessard are the 2nd team in Canada, following Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney. The top 2 teams got the chance to compete in the Continental Final in Mexico. The winner of this tournament earns a berth to the Olympics. Amazingly, both Canadian men and women won the tournament, so Canada will have one team from each gender represented for beach volleyball.

In order to determine which team gets to go to the Olympics, the two teams from each gender will play a match. This should be such an exciting day, everyone should come down to Ashbridges Bay to watch!! The women will compete at 1pm and the men at 3pm on Saturday, July 7th. See you there!!

Ok, time for an update! Here's what we've been up to in April and May 

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic
The first stop of our tour this season. It’s a NORCECA, which means it’s a continental event and only teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean can compete. We finished up in 4^th… a respectable finish, just frustrating to lose our two final matches. 

Canadian men

Yay team!

A lot of locals in the ocean.

Overall it was a good chance for us to get used to playing outside in the wind and sun. It was more a trial run for the first World Tour event of the season in….

Brasilia, Brazil

Our walk to the courts, along the highway of daily potential death

We flew back home to Toronto and had a super-quick turnover, having only a day to do laundry and re-pack before flying out to Brazil. There were two rounds of Qualification (single elimination) to make it into the Main Draw. We beat Uruguay but lost a tight one to Georgia and just missed qualifying.

Good morning Brasilia!

We then flew home, and since we loved having only one day to get everything reorganized for the next trip, we did it again! This time we flew to…

CHINA

Ohh the 3 week-long trip in China.

First stop: Sanya

This place is HOT. Like - sitting in the shade, wearing nothing but a bikini yet sweating profusely - hot. It’s a small island off the southern coast of China and it’s a popular vacation spot (also known as China’s Hawaii) (for real). Yes, it has beaches, and yes there are palm trees, but it’s still China. Like last year, we were warned not to eat the meat because it could be contaminated with steroids. Anyway, there were two Quali rounds again here. Our first match up was against another Canadian team; Annie Martin and Marie-Andree Lessard. These guys are volleyball veterans and we knew it was going to be a tough match. Unfortunately there was a little collision at the net early on and I hyperextended my knee, but that got me pretty fired up and we pulled out a 3-set win. That set us up against a team from the Netherlands. This is another solid team and we battled hard. Our match was played in the mid-day Sanya heat and I’m pretty sure all four of us were delirious. It was so hot we could barely think straight, let alone get our bodies to cooperate and play basic volleyball. We ended up losing in the 3^rd set. A heartbreaker, but my knee was starting to seriously swell up so a break was probably not the worst thing at the time.

Ow.

Acupuncture

camping meals for dinner

Shanghai
The next stop on tour was in Shanghai. This was a Grand Slam, which requires a certain amount of points to even be in the qualifier. I have hardly any points from taking most of last year off to let me shoulder heal, so we didn’t quite make the cut in Shanghai. Dang.

Local hot spot

Trying to communicate with cab-drivers is always an adventure

But we did manage to get some quality training in so that we could be prepared for….

Beijing

This was another Grand Slam, and we squeaked into this one, getting the last spot! Unfortunately this matched us up with the top-seeded qualifying team (Austria) so we had a tough draw and lost our first and only match of the day. It was tough to lose, we didn’t have our best game, but it was encouraging to make some great plays against a solid team like that, even despite the injury.

Just made a quick stop at one of the wonders of the world

HOME

We managed to get home in time for mother’s day and see our moms (however jet-lagged we may have been!). 

My family also threw a surprise celebration for Lenny in honour of his achievements on the World Cup circuit this past season. It was really good to have the whole family together, if only for a few days. Lenny’s off to training camps in Oregon and Hawaii (the real one) and Jamie and I stayed in Toronto for 2 weeks and took advantage of the great weather down at the beaches.

Where are we now?

Seoul, Korea

There’s a challenger event happening here, and we thought it would be good practice for the Grand Slam coming up Moscow next week. This was a successful tournament for us, ending up in 9^th place! We’re feeling good and are happy with our game here in Seoul. 

VW convertible timeout booth

that was fun





On to the next one!! MOSCOW

Ready to play!

Our flights are booked for our first tournament together in the Dominican Republic! The tournament is happening in Boca Chica on April 5-9. We'll be sure to keep the updates coming.

Here's a pretty cool video about beach volleyball that gets us pumped and game ready! Enjoy!!







And don't forget to "like" our new Facebook fan page!

Shoes! (and winter update)

After a long (rather mild) winter, it's finally time to get things started up for the summer season! We've been training at the new indoor facility at Downsview Park and hitting the weights at our gym, ATP. 

Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, so I had to take some time off to let it heal. Jamie had an opportunity to play in the first tournament of the year, which took place in the Cayman Islands. She went with another defender from team Canada and they did an awesome job coming in 5th place! Now that I am able to play on my ankle again, we are back in training mode for our next few upcoming tournaments. 

To kick things off, we'll be leaving for a NORCECA event in the Dominican Republic, followed by a few FIVB world tour stops in Brazil and China. I'm really excited to get out into competition phase. Jamie and I are feeling strong. 

Over the winter, we explored some sponsorship opportunities, and we're proud to announce that we have a team shoe! PAEZ is an awesome company that makes these stylish and comfortable shoes. Jamie and I picked this style, the "Panama Rojo", with its Canadian colours to represent our team. If you like them, let us know and we will order your size. They are $50 and 70% of the proceeds go directly to helping us reach our Olympic dream.

Please email Jamie or I if you would like to support us by purchasing a pair! Thanks!

kvaljas@gmail.com    broderjamie@gmail.com