Dubai: The president of the UAE Volleyball Association (UAE VA) is confident the national beach volleyball team will use competitions along the way to peak in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
"The ideal thing will be to see our team qualify to the Olympic Games in London and for this we are organising tournaments ourselves and also ensuring the teams participate in as many competitions as possible during this build-up period," UAE VA President Amer Ali told Gulf News.
The official was speaking at the announcement of the 13th GCC Beach Volleyball that is scheduled to be held at the Ajman Beach from October 28-November 1.
"Our teams have had extensive preparations and we will definitely want them to lead the rest of the teams when the tournament is held next month," Ali said.
As per the tournament format, all six countries from the Gulf region will be entering two teams each.
The UAE challenge will consist of Abdullah Obaid and Ahmad Hassan in one side, while Khalid Hamza and Mohammad Salem will be in the other.
Olympic qualifiers
"We are serious about our teams getting the right sort of preparations before the Olympic qualifiers are held later this year. And with this aim in mind, the players chosen in both the teams are dedicated full-time beach volleyball athletes instead of the earlier practice of using players from the normal volleyball teams," Ali said.
The UAE teams' preparations have been intense during the summer. After a training camp in Finland, they travelled to Syria where they snatched the silver and bronze medals at the Arab Beach Volleyball Championships earlier this month.
They are currently training at Jumeirah Beach under the supervision of coach Muneer Aboushi. The two teams will travel to Bahrain for the Gulf Beach Olympics starting from October 10 before returning in time for the GCC Beach Volleyball in Ajman at the end of the month.
Tremendous pressure
"If we prepare our teams in the right way, we don't see any reason why we cannot come out top in this Gulf competition," Ali said.
Saeed Al Matroushi, General Secretary, Ajman Executive Council, admitted that the UAE teams will be under pressure to achieve during this competition.
"But this is the moment the teams need to deliver. And after their silver and bronze medals at the Arab competition in Syria last month, we are in a better position to go one step further," Al Matroushi said.
