Pair just miss out on medals at test event
The British pairing of Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton just missed out on the medals at the London 2012 beach volleyball test event, finishing in an impressive fourth place.
The pair, who do their UK-based training at the University of Bath, were just edged out in the battle for bronze 19-21, 18-21 by Brazil’s Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima.
They had earlier beaten the Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medallists and world number one pair Chen Xue and Xi Zhang to reach the final four in the competition, which took place at the 2012 venue at Horse Guards Parade.
Boulton said: “We feel disappointed with the loss today, but looking across the whole week there’s been loads of positives and some real career highs.
“We knew Horse Guards Parade was going to be a special venue for beach volleyball but now we’ve played here we know that next year, with 15,000 fans inside, it’s going to be amazing.”
Johns added: “We’ve had a season of ups and downs so this week has been a big step forward and we just need to carry it on through the next couple of tournaments.”
The other British pair at the test event, Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney, reached the quarter-finals, where they went down to Brazil’s Liliane Maestrini and and Angela Viera, who went on to win the competition overall.
