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| Home » News » Sheffield selected to host European Volleyball Qualifiers
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| Sheffield selected to host European Volleyball Qualifiers |
Great Britain’s Volleyball squads will be hoping to make home advantage count when they compete at a prestigious European Championship event in the city next month.
The English Institute of Sport – Sheffield (EISS) has been selected to host the first round of qualification matches of the European Championships on May 8, which will see the combined Home-Nations’ team compete in a major tournament for the first time in a decade.
The action starts at 5pm when the GB Women, who train full time out of the EISS, play Albania. The squad, featuring Sheffield spiker Rachel Laybourne, will be hoping to build on their success at the Novotel Cup in Luxembourg where they scooped gold.
They will be followed by the GB Men who take on Denmark at 8pm. The squad, led by Sheffield-based captain Ben Pipes, will be back in training at the EISS in the build up to the fixture having played a season in the Dutch Pro A league as ‘Martinus’.
More than 1,000 spectators are expected to turn out at the Sheffield International Venues (SIV) facility for the event, which is organised by the British Volleyball Federation (BVF) with support from Volleyball England.
The EISS is the home of the British Volleyball Indoor Programme and the location of the BVF High Performance Office and has hosted numerous Volleyball events including Volleyball England’s National Cup Finals and the World Championships 2005.
Richard Callicott, Chairman of the British Volleyball Federation, said: “We are delighted to be staging the Championships at the EISS. The facilities are first class and will be familiar to many of the players. Sheffield has such a strong association with volleyball and this prestigious event will enable us to further strengthen this relationship with the city. It will be a great opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd and showcase the squad’s development over the last 12 months.”
The European Qualifiers come ahead of the European League, in which the GB Men will be playing in this year, with a number of matches expected to be held at the EISS from June 22-29.
Paul Hudson, general manager of the EISS, said: “It is fantastic that the EISS has been selected to host this high profile European event. GB volleyballers have been based in Sheffield since the BVF moved here last February and this event will be a great chance for fans of the sport to see the country’s elite players in action.”
Tickets for the event are priced at £5 for adults and £3 for concessions. They are available in advance by visiting www.volleyballengland.org, calling 0114 223 5600 or from the EIS Sheffield reception, Coleridge Road, Sheffield, S9 5DA. |
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