IOA offered chance to rescue beach volleyball at National Games

Panaji: Organisers of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in Goa have told the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) that the beach volleyball event at the 37th National Games can be rescued.

The IOA’s ad-hoc committee formed to run the day-to-day affairs of the Volleyball Federation of India has said that volleyball – which includes beach version of the sport – cannot be included at the National Games due to factionalism. The National championships too have not been held, so there’s no basis to select the top eight teams for participation in the multi-discipline event.

While it’s now confirmed that volleyball will not be part of the National Games, there are moves to at least have beach volleyball.

“For beach volleyball, the ad-hoc committee had a tournament in Chennai (in July) to select the teams for Asian Games, so the top eight can be easily picked from there,” Mandrem MLA and former Goa volleyball captain Jit Arolkar told TOI on Friday.

Arolkar is chairman of the organising committee for the Goa leg of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and has now officially written to sports minister Govind Gaude, offering a solution. The organisation, and the club, enjoys support of FIVB, the governing body for world volleyball.

“We understand that the National Games for beach volleyball is not being conducted due to certain reasons. We would like to inform you that appropriate infrastructure is readily available to conduct beach volleyball this year.

“We have no hostility for beach volleyball to conducted by the Volleyball Federation of India (ad-hoc committee) and we would readily join hands for the conduct of the National Games for beach volleyball at the scheduled dates,” Arolkar wrote in his letter to the sports minister on Friday.

Gaude, along with chief minister Pramod Sawant, were present for the tournament’s opener on Thursday where the sports exclusion was discussed.

The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is organised by the experienced Chennai-based Marina Beach Club, all of whom are already in Goa.

The final decision, however, will depend on the ad-hoc committee. Sources said the presence of former international S. Gopinath, a member of the ad-hoc committee, at Varca on Friday, provided a ray of hope.

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