From Italy to Germany....

We are getting closer and closer to our first World Tour event in Shanghai which will start for us NEXT Thursday (instead of Wednesday) as we just found out today that we are in the Main Draw and ranked 17th! Very exciting news! Shows that we are moving up in the beach world and to start the year without having to play the cut throat qualifier the year continues to look good! We arrived here in Berlin yesterday and the journey was a little longer than I had anticipated but we are here and are again being looked after by the German team that we have been training with. The facilities here in Berlin are AMAZING!!!! The next best thing for an athlete, the first being winning gold’s and world titles etc, would have to be training in a facility that attains to your every need! And that is what the facilities are like here! We are at an Olympic Sports Forum training centre and it would blow your mind! Each sport that is based here has its OWN facility. The beach volleyball program has outdoor courts, but has just built an indoor training facility that has 3 courts, each with different depths of sand to train in, and cameras at every angle to allow feedback of your technique either later or on the spot on the plasma TV that is in the wall next to the court! There is a gym that is FOR the volleyball athletes just down the hall and a players lounge where they can chill between trainings with pretty much everything you need! Another example would be the exact replica of the Beijing Olympic pool that was built as soon as the plans were made available so the athletes could train in the same environment that they would be racing in!! It is a dream environment for any athlete from New Zealand! We will spend the next few days here training (but a lighter week) before we leave for Shanghai on Friday. Very excited for Shanghai, not only to play – especially now that we know we are in the main draw, but also because Craig (my partner) is coming over for 10days! Suz will be able to let you know how the week goes here and what the trip was like next week!