Gertrude Zarb and Dorianne Caruana Bonnici open their GSSE beach volley campaign today when playing Iceland and Luxembourg in the opening matches of the round-robin competition at the Beach Volley Arena, in Serravalle.
This is the first time that the pair are playing together at the Games.
While Zarb has already represented the country in the previous two editions – in Luxembourg 2013 and Iceland 2015 – when lining up with Alison Borg, Caruana Bonnici will be making her first showing at this level.
After today’s matches, Zarb and Caruana Bonnici face Cyprus, tomorrow, and Monaco, on Thursday.
They have been practising under the tutelage of coach Oscar Bjorlin for the past three months and the Swedish mentor sounded pleased with the level of preparation of his players.
“Gertrude and Dorianne have been putting long hours of training since February,” Bjorlin, himself a former beach volley player, said.
“Their training was serious and very intense. Now, we are looking back from where we started and we know there has been significant improvement in their build-up play and technique.
“We do not have a lot of information on the other teams but from what we’ve seen during practice sessions here we are sure the competition will be tough. That makes the challenge more daunting. So, hopefully, it will lift our players to higher standards along the way.”
Malta has never made the podium in beach volley competitions at the GSSE and while Bjorlin admits it’s too early to predict how far his team can go he reckons a satisfactory showing here in San Marino could provide a major boost to the sport.
“There’s no two ways about it… encouraging results in San Marino will augment our commitment and development for the sport,” Bjorlin said.
“Due to lack of funds we cannot sustain a well-structured project to increase the number of beach volley players in Malta. But I’m sure that if we do well here we can get more funding to invest in new initiatives and that will also be a good promotion for beach volley.
“Malta has everything in place to be a perfect beach volley destination – the climate is perfect and several beaches are available where the sport can be practised.
“That’s why I keep telling my players that they have another good reason to give their all and I’m sure they will try their utmost to get the best possible results.”