Laird, del Solar pack bags for Brazil’s beaches

NICOLE Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solar are set to realise their Olympic dreams – three years after moving to SA with little more than hope.

Volleyroos Nicole Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solarare bound for the Rio Olympics. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

NICOLE Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solar are set to realise their Olympic dreams – three years after moving to SA with little more than hope.

The pair was on Friday confirmed as Australia’s second female beach volleyball team for the Rio Games.

Their selection came on the back of a victory in last weekend’s Asian Continental Cup in Cairns.

“You just can’t explain the feeling of qualifying for the Olympics,” said del Solar, 23. “Being a part of the Olympic team is an honour and the pinnacle for any athlete.”

Laird and del Solar have played together since they were teenagers at Sydney’s Killara High.

They were reunited on the sand when Peru-born del Solar followed Laird to the Adelaide-based national beach volleyball program in 2013.

“We both quickly realised that we were each other’s best chance to make the Olympics,” said Laird, 22.

“We’ve worked really hard towards this for the last four years. To be confirmed as Olympians is really exciting.”

Del Solar admitted the pair – ranked 54th in the world – would be underdogs against the cream of beach volleyball talent in Brazil.

But she hoped to cause some upsets.

“We’re stoked to have made it to where we are,” said del Solar, who lives in Lockleys.

“But we aren’t satisfied. We’re going to give it (the Olympics) a real shot.”