The venue of the volleyball tournament, Earls Court, was packed with 15,000 fans for the debut of the home heroines of Team GB
“I have never experienced that before. I have played before in front of other crowds but to play at home and lead out my team in front of 15,000 people is the highlight of my career so far” says Team GB captain Lynne Beattie. “Russia is the 2010 world champion and we knew it would be a tough match, so we went out with all guns blazing” she adds. As for the next game coming up on Monday against Algeria, Beattie stresses: “We did not see Algeria play this morning but with the many positives we can take from that performance we can surely do well against the African champions”.
“It was our first game but we did not show any nerves from the start and we caused lots of problems for Russia which is what we had intended to do” says coach Audrey Cooper. “We let ourselves down in the second set but we managed to pick up our game plan in the third set to bounce back”. Cooper expects Team GB will score its first win of the Olympic campaign on Monday while playing Algeria. “We would just like to see as many people as possible as you saw today that from the third set the crowd lifted our girls and we do hope to have a full house again”.
Russia’s Evgenia Estes (Artamonova) who is participating in her sixth Olympics pointed out the reasons for her side’s comeback to the international elite: “Our players stay in Russia to play for clubs at home and this is one reason why the Russian team got stronger than in the past”. As for the perspectives of her sixth Olympic adventure, she adds: “I have won three silver medals but I would like to finally add a gold medal to my collection. I think our toughest rivals will be the USA together with Brazil”.
