Volleyball Australia will transport 500 tonnes of sand to Canberra to build an international-standard facility as part of plan to boost Australia's chances of winning Olympic Games beach volleyball medals.
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The Canberra Times can reveal Volleyball Australia and the AIS have agreed to redesign an existing multi-purpose training venue at the Bruce campus.
It is part of Volleyball Australia's "integrated" vision to transform the Canberra centre of excellence scholarship program and have athletes train for beach volleyball and the traditional indoor format.
Officials have been searching for the appropriate sand combination and will send samples to an expert in Canada in the hope the venue will be classified as international standard.
The two new courts will need more than half a metre of sand as the base, which will likely come from a quarry north of Newcastle, and the project is set to be finished by June, coinciding with the start of national coach Margo Wiltens tenure.
It means volleyball scholarship holders will be trained in both formats for the first time, with officials viewing beach volleyball as the best avenue to win Olympic medals.
Australia won gold in the men's and silver in the women's events at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last year.
"We've run an emerging elite program here for a number of years and it's been focused on indoor volleyball," said Volleyball Australia boss Andrew Dee.
"But the new integrated program will be unique in the world for both beach and indoor.
"Hopefully we can fast-track that development to really underpin our development on the beach at the Olympic Games because that's where we believe our best chances of a medal are going forward.
"The impact will probably be in 2024 or 2028, but I think we can do it quite quickly in a structured way."
Canberra will host the ACT Open beach volleyball tournament, with a record field of 16 men's and women's division one teams competing for a share of the $4000 in prizemoney. The ACT government and Volleyball ACT built a $1 million beach volleyball venue at Lyneham in 2015.
Former Australia pair Isaac Kapa and Glenn Piper will compete in the men's division while brothers Andre and Nic Borgeuad will represent the Canberra Heat.
Volleyball Australia's elite beach program is based in Adelaide, but the AIS base will be used as a chance to develop more athletes to send on the world tour.
The AIS and Sport Australia are reviewing designs and specifications for the new facility, which has previously been used as an indoor tennis claycourt by Nick Kyrgios.
The AIS has recently re-laid the taraflex surfaces on the indoor courts in the adjacent venue and has committed to two indoor beach courts for the likely 32-strong scholarship group.
"It's all a bit new. It's about how we use the facilities here and we want to do some research to get some coaching and training cues to work out how we develop the transition," Dee said.
"It's about fast-tracking the athletes so that when they graduate [from the AIS program] they don't need another year or two in Adelaide to be ready for the world tour.
"It also works on an international level, like the old AIS, with international athletes using this as a training base. We're trying to establish it as a hub. That doesn't mean everything to everyone, it will have a purpose.
"We want to be able to identify beach volleyball players who can go on to that world tour level to have success. The integrated philosophy is new, and it's a culturally shift because [indoor and beach] have been quite separate.
"But pretty much every beach volleyball player in the world learnt their skills indoors. So we're trying to get a jump-start on that."
Sport Australia is working with the federal government on a new masterplan for the AIS site, which will likely involve downsizing the 64 hectares of land in use.
ACT OPEN
Saturday and Sunday: Play from 8am in men's division one and women's division one and two at Lyneham.
