JAPAN’s national beach volleyball squad is hoping the route to the FIVB beach volleyball world tour success passes through Cebu, or specifically the sand court at the Plaza Independen cia.
Sayaka Mizoe and Takemi Nishibori, ranked No. 47, are in Cebu for a two-week training for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, which will start with the Fuzhou Open in China in April.
“This is a very nice place to train. The weather is good and we love it here,” said Mizoe, who has been playing with Nishibori for two years.
Nishibori also said this is the second time they have trained outside Japan, which is on its winter season. They also trained in Brazil.
“We love it here more compared to Brazil because it’s just an hour from Japan by air compared to Brazil, where we have to travel for 12 hours. We haven’t been around yet but I believe we will enjoy our stay here,” said Nishibori.
Coach Yoshihiro Atsumi said that every winter season in their country, they try to find a warm place to train. So they looked onlike for a good training venue and came across the Facebook page of Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) beach volleyball consultant Eric Lecain, whom he has common friends with.
“I saw his page and saw the photos which made us decide to come here and check the place ourselves. We are glad we came, we love it here and we are even planning to bring more teams when we come back next year,” said Atsumi.
Lecain, on the other hand, said it is good there are teams from other country showing interest in training in Cebu.
“This would be the start of our long term goal of attracting foreign teams to come to Cebu and compete. This has been my and PSC chairman Richie Garcia’s dream to be able to put up an international tournament played by top players,” said Lecain.
Lecain said he hopes there will be other countries that will be interested to train at the Fort sand court.
“The advantage of having these good players around is that the level competition in our country will go up. With only few women in beach volleyball, we hope this will inspire more women to play beach volleyball,” said Lecain.
This would also be an opportunity for the local players to come and observe the players while they train and learn from them.