Press release

London, Great Britain, August 12, 2011 – Great Britain’s Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton kept the London crowd on the edge of their seats, but held their nerve to seal a dramatic victory over Canada’s Heather Bansley and Elizabeth Maloney at Horse Guard’s Parade.

The 26-24, 22-20 win in the teams’ first ever match puts Johns and Boulton into the quarterfinals of the  Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International where they will meet China’s second seeds Chen Xue and Zhang Xi.

“It was tough, it was phenomenally tough,” Johns said. “I don’t know if you could tell, but the wind was making the ball move, especially in those corners.

“I was really struggling, but I just thought about what our coach tells us and drills into us, as well as listening to what Lucy was saying.”


Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International Match Schedule
London, Great Britain | August 9-14
Olympic Test Event: Women

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In both sets the British duo responded to the support of a boisterous, capacity crowd to keep their focus as they sides exchanged points.

Boulton’s serving in particular was crucial to the win. Throughout the match she kept the Canadians on the backfoot with her powerful serves and in total hit five aces. 

“I was loving it,” Boulton said. “Though there were definitely times when I was like ‘don’t miss this serve, don’t miss this serve’. But for the most part the adrenalin was pumping and it felt good.

“I think people think we just come out and play, but we train every day and that is the sort of stuff that we work on. So when the pressure’s on we are still finding those areas. You almost just take the two players out and aim at bits of the court.”