Piece of history for beach duo Mumby and Star as Bellos claim Mexico Elite 16 ninth

Both Anaya Evans and Ellie Austin and Jess Grimson and Vicky Palmer have taken bronze medals on the World Tour. 

But the duo managed to go one better in Queensland, claiming silver medals after falling at the final hurdle to the USA’s Chacon sisters, Morgan and Alaina. 

Daisy and Kirsty had a tough start as they faced Vanuatu’s number four seeds Majabelle Lawac and Sherysyn Toko and lost in three sets (15-21, 22-20, 15-12). 

But they regrouped to beat their other Pool D opponents, Kayla Mears and Lara Maric of Australia, holding their nerve in a tight deciding set (18-21, 21-17, 15-13) to ensure passage to the Round of 12 stage. 

There, they overcame Samitta Simarongnam and Salinda Mungkhon of Thialand in straight sets (21-15, 21-12) to set up a quarter-final where the Brits again rose to the occasion, winning 21-14, 21-14 against the USA’s Delaney Peranich and Kaeli Crews. 

For the semi-finals, Daisy and Kirsty took on Japan’s Maho Yabumi and Mayu Kikuchi in what turned out to be a thrilling and nail-biting match, where they dropped the first set but powered back to take the next two to seal their final place (14-21, 21-19, 15-12) and spark the celebrations. 

And though, in the final, the pair could not deliver a maiden tour win as the Americans proved to be too strong (21-6, 21-16), they could nevertheless reflect on a great tournament that brought them 360 ranking points.  

“I'm still in disbelief!,” said Daisy. “After our ninth-place finish in the Mount Maunganui event, we set some goals for this one and personally I think we nailed them. 

“We played this same event last year and finished with a ninth place (after getting lucky loser), so wanted to try and push for a better result this time around. 

“Our main on-court focus was to concentrate on our side of the net, particularly a solid side-out and aggressive serving. We were confident we would then also make some great transition plays, score some aces, and make some blocks to come out on top. 

“We had a tough pool facing Vanuatu first, but we were still very happy with how we played so took that energy and our learning forward into our next matches.  

“We were lucky to be assigned centre court for the rest of our matches, with British MC AJ on the mic and the weather conditions were on our side with some home-like wind and rain. 

“We also ended up on a favourable side of the draw from the quarter-finals onwards, with the top three seeds on the other side, but we knew we still needed to perform and couldn't let our guard down. 

“I moved to the Gold Coast over a year ago now, so we had a full grandstand on our side with the wonderful local beach volleyball community rooting for us - loudly! The support we felt from back home was also unmatched. 

“It still feels surreal to know that, we believe, we have made history as the first English women's World Tour silver-medalists. Hopefully this is one of many medals for the women's cohort of Volleyball England.” 

Daisy and Kirsty were able to call on England men's player Niko Gleed to coach them throughout the preceding Mount Maunganui event, as well as leading up to and including Coolangatta.  

That enabled the pair to get used to the conditions and gain more confidence as a team going into the event in Australia. 

Kirsty: added: “It’s been such an incredible and unforgettable trip out here in Australia. Daisy and I were so excited that we got to play two world tour events together in the same trip, first in New Zealand and second in Australia. 

“Niko’s impact on us as a team and as me as an individual really cannot be overstated, and this medal 100% goes to him as well.  

“We tried not to have too many expectations for ourselves, which allowed us to play more freely.  

“The Round of 12 and quarter-final matches were played on a day with less than ideal weather, very rainy and windy, but our strategy going into that day was that we wanted to be the team playing with the most joy. 

“Yes, the conditions were not pleasant, but if we could be the team who actually wanted to be there more, we knew we had a good shot, and that’s exactly what we did. It was especially rewarding to see that all those rainy and windy training days in the UK paid off! 

“We were absolutely ecstatic to make it to Super Sunday, and be in the running for a medal. I don’t think either of us could quite believe it when we came from behind to win our semi-final match. The joy of knowing that we had earned a medal no matter what happened in the finals was a feeling I’ll never forget. 

“It’s always difficult to end a tournament on a loss, but it’s a really important learning lesson for me to not let that one loss define the tournament. We still had an amazing run and earned our spot in the gold medal match. 

“This was just my third world tour event ever, so I am more than excited to get back to work and make it happen again.” 

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Meanwhile, England’s Javier and Joaquin Bello, 16th in the men’s world rankings, claimed a ninth place finish in their first compettive outing of the season at the BPT Elite 16 event in Quintana Roo (Playa Del Carmen), Mexico. 

The London-based duo went in as the sixth placed seeds, but lost their first match to the USA’s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, who went on to take overall third place (21-19, 21-17). 

But they hit back to beat Mark Nicolaidis and Izak Carracher 21-18, 21-16 in their second Pool F fixture to set up a round of 18 match with world number 10 team, the Grimalt brothers, from Chile. 

A confident performance saw Javier and Joaquin prevail by a 21-16, 21-18 scoreline to bring on a Round of 12 encounter with the number one seeds David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig. 

It was not to be on this occasion, as the Swedes ran out 21-13, 21-14 victors, but it was nevertheless a solid start to the season for England’s number one pair, with them claiming 600 ranking points. 

The brothers are next set to be in BPT action for the Elite 16 event in Saquarema, Brazil, starting on 9th April. 

Images by @rogue.gun photgraphy (women) and Beach Volleyball World (men)

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