Rio Olympics 2016: Beach volleyball duo book their tickets to the Olympic Games
LONG-TIME friends Nicole Laird and Maria Fe Artacho del Solar will realise their Olympic dreams on the sands of Copacabana beach as part of the Australian volleyball team in Rio.
North Shore
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LONG-TIME friends Nicole Laird and Maria Fe Artacho del Solar will realise their Olympic dreams on the sands of Copacabana beach in Rio.
The pair confirmed their place last Sunday as Australia’s second female beach volleyball team for next month’s Games with a win over Vanuatu at the Asian Continental Cup in Cairns.
The north shore duo, who have played together since they were teenagers at Killara High School, moved to Adelaide where National Beach Volleyball program is based when they were 18 to pursue their dreams.
“The move has been huge individually for both us because the facilities in Adelaide have been awesome and there is a really strong squad here,”
Top flight sporting success has always been on the cards for the talented sportswomen when they were discovered by the North Shore Times as part of the NewsLocal Junior Sports Star Award competition.
Del Solar, who is now 22, started playing indoor volleyball at age six in her native Peru, before switching to the beach when she moved to Australia five years later.
She also quickly developed a love of netball and cricket and excelled at swimming, softball and tennis with her athletic prowess helping her break down barriers among her fellow students at West Gordon Public School.
Laird, 23, who grew up in Killara, qualified for representative teams and squads in numerous sports including swimming, diving, cross-country, athletics and hockey.
“I grew up with sport and it has always been a passion of mine. I have always liked watching it and arguably I played all the wrong ones until I was 15 when I first started playing beach volleyball.
“I stumble across it really when a friend, who I played hockey, went to a beach volleyball holiday camp and I just went a long and fell in love with it.”
The Killara duo tasted success in 2014 when they won the under-23 World Championships in 2014.
Laird, 23, said her and del Solar have always complimented each other on and off the court and would be making the most of the Olympic experience.
“I think for us obviously there is not as much pressure for us to perform but I think we can go all the way if we play how we want to play,” Laird said.
“Our main goal will be to just to take it one match at a time and go from there.”
“Beach volleyball is huge over there and we will be playing in front of big crowds so it is going to be a great experience playing for our country in front of that,” de Solar said.
Junior Sports Stars realise their Olympic dreams
The North Shore Times identified this dynamic duo as sporting heroes of the future as far back as 2006.
Both Laird and del Solar were selected as Junior Sports Stars that year.
As a schoolgirl, Laird qualified for representative teams and squads in numerous sports including swimming, diving, cross-country athletics and hockey.
As a 13-year-old Laird told the North Shore Times in 2006 she loved sport so much because it is a great way ”to make new friends outside of school.’’
Del Solar, who is now 22, started playing indoor volleyball at age six in her native Peru, before switching to the beach when she moved to Australia five years later.
Her proud uncle Luis Almenera told the North Shore Times in 2007: “She’s just a natural sportsgirl.”
She played under-15 volleyball for New South Wales as an 11-year old, wowing observers by serving a perfect game at the national championships in Albury.
She started from the opening point and went all the way through to 25 without making a single mistake.
The boss of Volleyball NSW Bob Konakoff` told the Times: “There was no holding back. We kept thinking that sooner or later she had to miss one out but she was just millimetre perfect.’’
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