Beach volleyball girls dreaming of summer Olympics

Sasha-Lee Wallen and Kai Wright want to be the first Jamaicans to represent the country in beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics.

But their aspirations seem like a pipe dream now as the sport has not been able to garner traction from the society.

And the women believe this is important if they are to get the help that they need to achieve their goal.

"If we are going to achieve it, we will need the support of Jamaica. A lot of people don't even know that Jamaica plays beach volleyball," Wallen told STAR Sports recently.

However, the duo has been getting themselves into shape on the NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean Confederation) beach volleyball circuit and now they are ready to test themselves in Barranquillo, Colombia, at the 23rd staging of the Central American and Caribbean Games.

HIGHER COMPETITION

"We really think we can do well. We have been playing on the NORCECA beach volleyball circuit, so we will be familiar with some of the teams. But seeing that it is a higher competition, I guess we have learned from what we did in NORCECA, and so we should be able to come out and give a better performance," Wallen said before she left the island yesterday for Barranquillo.

"My partner and I are fairly new playing together. I think we got the jitters out playing on the circuit; so now that we are at the Games, we should put on a better performance," Wallen said.

The duo is planning to put on a good show at the Games to raise awareness for the sport.

"If we are going to achieve our goal of playing in the Olympics, we have to do well at these Games to grab the attention of the nation so that we can get the support that we need," Wallen said.

The team will play their first game on Saturday, July 28.