London Won't Host Women's Beach Volleyball Event As Organizers Failed To Secure Funding

Beach volleyball "will not return to London this summer after Volleyball England failed to attain enough commercial backing for the project," according to Nick Hope of the BBC. In April, the sports int'l governing body, FIVB, "listed the capital as a host for a women's world tour event" from Aug. 14-18. However, the organizers fell around £350,000 ($537,000) "short of the half a million pounds worth of funding they needed." British beach volleyball player Zara Dampney said, "I'm really disappointed. I was excited that the U.K. would have been able to see international beach volleyball again and it would have been another chance to compete at home." UK Sport is committed to investing around £27M ($41.4M) of National Lottery funds on its "Gold Event Series," which "aims to bring 70 major tournaments to Great Britain between 2013 and 2019." But "as the potential beach volleyball competition in London did not carry World Series status, it did not qualify for support" (BBC, 6/3).