vbhead
Gallery
GB 2012 and International

Great Britain along with some other sports in the UK play as Home Nations in all World international competitions except the Olympics. The British Volleyball Federation (BVF) took the organisational role for the GB volleyball teams building for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games with the Home Nations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales contributing; the Home Nation's National teams were re-established after 2012 when the GB teams were no longer funded.

Home Olympics in brief

The GB Women's indoor team were led by GB head coach, Audrey Cooper from March 2009. Funding was withdrawn from the GB Women's Team in August 2010 but they managed to raise the money to enable them to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Sixteen of the players played with European Clubs and one played in the USA.   The GB Men were based in Amstelveen playing in The Netherlands' Pro-A League for Club Martinus during the 2007-2008 season. They continued to work with Head Coach, Netherlands' Harry Brokking, assisted by ex Sheffield's Joel Banks. Eighteen members of the squad played for professional clubs in Europe in the league seasons.

Teams at Earls Court during the London 2012 Olympic Games often struggled in their first sets against GB and acknowledged that they had not known what to expect from the GB Teams. The GB Women beat Algeria in their pool round at Earls Court and came 9th in the overall competition. They improved their World Ranking from 69th to 20th. The GB Men came 11th and were sitting at 28 in the World Ranking Table from a previous position of 92.

 

The GB Beach Teams were based in Bath with head coach Australia's Matt Grinlaubs until 2011 and then Imornefe (Morph) Bowes to 2012. They travelled the world competing in both the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) and European Federation (CEV) beach events from April to October each year. The GB Men’s beach teams also had funding withdrawn in August 2010, but continued to compete. The two GB Women’s teams of Dampney/Mullins (placed 5th) and Boulton/Johns (placed 4th) excited the crowds at the FIVB International London Prepares test event at Horse Guards Parade in August 2011. Dampney/Mullins made it through to the Lucky Loser round in the London 2012 Olympic Games and were placed 17th. GB Men, Grotowski/Garcia-Thompson finished 19th. The teams received strong support from the crowds in all their matches on Horse Guards Parade.


Early in 2010, administration for the sitting team moved from the BVF to Volleyball England and the GB Men trained under the former England Men’s coach, Ian Legrand, assistant coach Ashley Trodden and team manager Gordon Day. The GB Women’s Sitting Team, formed in November 2010 were coached by head coach, Steve Jones, assistant coach Karen Hung with team manager, Gordon Neale. The GB teams and the sitting volleyball clubs with Volleyball England flourished and both the GB Teams gained places for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and competed at the London Excel Centre.

GB Men were placed 8th; their libero, Netra Rana came second in the Libero Paralympic ranking table and John Munro headed the blockers ranking table. They won their match against Morocco who were ahead of them in the World rankings but the game that captured everyone’s imagination was against silver medallists Iran. GB Women, just three years from being formed came 8th with some strong action from Samantha Bown and Nicole Hill.

International

The International indoor teams of China, USA and Serbia currently hold the top positions in the Women's indoor ranking while Brazil, USA and Poland are 1,2,3 in the Men's tables. In the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympic Games Brazil beat Italy and China beat Serbia to take the gold in the men's and women's competitions respectively. USA came third in both.

The World Beach Tour ranking is updated across the season and can be found on the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) website. The Beach event in Rio was won by Brazil's Alison/Bruno Schmidt in the men's competition and Germany's Ludwig/Walkenhorst in the women's event. Italy's Nicolai/Lupo and the Netherland's Brouwer/Meeuwsen came second and third in the men's ranking and Brazil's Agatha/Barbara and USA's Walsh-Jennings/Ross were in the same positions for the women.

In the Sitting World Paravolley game, the 2017 ranking has Iran, Brazil and Egypt Men's teams and USA, China and Brazil Women in the 1,2,3 positions in their respective ranking tables. In the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games Iran, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Egypt took the gold, silver and bronze in the men's competition and USA Women beat China to the gold position while Brazil won the bronze. Iran won again in the 2020 (2021) Paralympics Men's and USA took the Women's Parasitting title in Tokyo 2020 (2021) Paralympic Games.

 

Images from the International game can be found throughout the galleries.
©the volleyball library 2023 | Home | Terms and Conditions | Privacy |Contacts