Commonwealth Games: Scots eye Australia beach volleyball debut

Lynne Beattie (left) captained Team GB at the 2012 Olympics in London

Scotland are hoping to put together a beach volleyball team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. 

The sport is to be one of 18 disciplines included at the event, which will be held in the Gold Coast from 4-15 April 2018.

It follows a special request to the Games organisers from the Queensland authorities.

Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Paul Bush said the announcement was a "huge boost" for beach volleyball.

He said: "We will now continue to work closely with colleagues at Scottish Volleyball to develop the necessary criteria to ensure that we can select a team that competes with distinction.

"There is no better place to showcase this exciting sport than in Gold Coast."

The announcement was also welcomed by Lynne Beattie, who captained Great Britain's London 2012 Olympic volleyball team and who is Scotland's number one international beach athlete.

"I would be overjoyed at the opportunity to represent Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and look forward to hearing more about the qualification process later in the year," she said.

The Gold Coast Games will become the first to include beach volleyball and extends the number of sports involved from 17 to 18.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland state's premier, said: "The Games is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase Queensland to the world and, with beach volleyball now locked in to make its Commonwealth Games debut, vision of the Gold Coast's iconic beaches will be beamed to an audience of over 1.5 billion people around the world."

Two 12-team tournaments will be contested, one for men's teams and one for women's teams, consisting of two players per team.

A qualification system will be developed in collaboration with the international volleyball federation, FIVB, and will be finalised by July.

Volleyball Scotland chief executive Margaret Ann Fleming said: "I am confident that our athletes are ready to embrace this opportunity and I look forward to 2018 with optimism."

The news of beach volleyball's inclusion has also been welcomed by Volleyball England chief executive Lisa Wainwright.

"This is fantastic news which has been many years in the making," she said.

Kirk Pitman, who coaches the England men's beach team of Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf, said: "This is amazing news for the sport of beach volleyball and potentially a fantastic opportunity for Chris and Jake."

Olympics 2024: 'LA has not conceded race' to Paris

LA bid chair Casey Wasserman says their bid had to make sense for the Olympic movement and the city

Los Angeles has not conceded defeat to Paris in the race to be named host city of the 2024 Olympic Games - but its bid leader has hinted it is open to hosting them in 2028.

The two cities are the only ones left in the race for 2024 after Budapest, Hamburg and Rome withdrew.

Bid chair Casey Wasserman appeared to concede to Paris when he said: "We have never been only about 2024."
 
But a spokesman later told BBC Sport: "LA is the ideal host city for 2024."

He added: "LA is not conceding anything in the race for the 2024 Games."

Concerns over this apparent lack of interest in staging sport's biggest event, as well as years of bad publicity about spiralling costs and unused venues, has led the International Olympic Committee to consider taking advantage of these two strong bids by giving them a Games each.

Confirmation of the legality of that option is expected on Friday.

Wasserman issued a statement on Wednesday that appeared to concede the race.

"Even when the issue of a dual award for the 2024 and 2028 Games was initially raised, we didn't say it's 'LA first' or it's 'now or never' for LA: that sounds like an ultimatum," Wasserman said.

"We could have used that strategy but we didn't because we thought it was presumptuous to tell the IOC what to do and how to think. We're better partners than that.

"It has always been our contention that LA 2024 had to make as much sense for the Olympic movement as it did for the people of LA. And we've stuck to that premise.

"We don't believe in ultimatums - we believe in partnership; that's why we are willing to look beyond ourselves and ask the question 'how can LA best serve the long-term needs of the Olympic and Paralympic Games?"'

He said the LA bid requires no public funding and all the facilities are either built or being built anyway.

But the bid team later issued the clarification to emphasise they had not given up on LA hosting in 2024.

The Paris bid aims to mark the centenary of its last Games in 1924 and end a run of three previous failed bids, most recently in 2005 when London was awarded the 2012 Games.

Paris has also claimed it has to go first as the site it has earmarked for the Olympic Village will not be available for redevelopment after 2024.

The traditional vote to decide between the bidders is scheduled for the IOC session in Peru's capital Lima in September.