14/05/2012 17:00
French ladies feel confident before home showdown in Sèvres
CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
Sèvres, France, May 14, 2012. Only a couple of days are left for the start of the Continental Cup semifinal stage whose venue will be the splendid scenario of Ile de Monsieur in Sèvres, right in the outskirts of Paris. On Wednesday the ladies will open their campaign to keep their dream to make it to the 2012 Olympics alive. The home heroines of France are being confronted by their opponents from Ukraine in the 1/4 finals before they can eventually challenge a very strong Spanish side in the semis.
“We really need to play our best to stand a chance while playing Spain” says the head coach of the national team, Christophe Victor. “However, we first have to fully concentrate on our clash with the girls from Ukraine who shall, at least on paper, be well within our reach, since that nation is participating in this stage of the Continental Cup with a couple of young duos who haven’t toured internationally so far” he continues. The home ladies traveled on Monday to Paris after completing a training camp in Toulouse that lasted for a couple of weeks. “We have nothing to lose and we will exploit this great opportunity to play in front of our home audience. Even though the Olympics still look quite far away, the girls know that this is their last chance to advance to the final and stay in contention for that Olympic berth as they won’t anyway make it there via the spots assigned through the FIVB World Ranking” stresses Victor.
Déborah Giaoui (31) who will be competing in Sèvres with partner Melody Benhamou has been playing Beach Volleyball for ten years and can hardly wait for the matches to start. “I really like the formula of the Continental Cup as the contribution of every single player is extremely important to make it to the next round. We have been thinking about this qualification round for one year, especially after we advanced to the second round of the FIVB Grand Slam in Moscow. We are in great shape but we stay down-to-earth and remain careful as we do not have that much info about our opponents from Ukraine. Our main goal is to deliver a good performance here in Sèvres” she says.
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Picture: France's Déborah Giaoui and Melody Benhamou at last year's Zonal Phase of the Continental Cup in Kazan, Russia
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