{"id":92754,"date":"2025-10-21T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/92754\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:03:10","slug":"on-the-up-taurangas-beach-blacks-qualify-for-world-beach-volleyball-championships-in-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/92754\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Tauranga\u2019s Beach Blacks qualify for World Beach Volleyball Championships in Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beach Ferns have also qualified, with Waikato\u2019s Shaunna Polley<\/a> and Olivia MacDonald the first women\u2019s combination to do so since 2001.<\/p>\n

Fuller, 30, and O\u2019Dea, 33, have been playing beach volleyball<\/a> together almost two years, having each achieved success on the sand with prior partners.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea won bronze alongside his brother, Sam O\u2019Dea, at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

Fuller and O\u2019Dea\u2019s partnership \u201ccame together organically\u201d, Fuller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always on the other side of the net from each other, and having really good games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we saw that if we got together as a team, our ceiling was probably a lot higher than anybody else pairing up in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuller and O\u2019Dea set the World Beach Volleyball Championships as their goal over a year ago.<\/p>\n

\" Fuller and O’Dea are the first Beach Blacks to qualify for the World Beach Volleyball Championships since 2015. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

They won the World Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Mount Maunganui<\/a> in March. <\/p>\n

In April, they placed second at the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Beach Tour Samila Open and fifth at the World Beach Pro Tour Futures event at Thailand.<\/p>\n

When the duo spoke to NZME, they were in the Philippines for a World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been playing a lot of international tours because that\u2019s our only exposure to those high-level teams,\u201d Fuller said.<\/p>\n

Recently, they competed in a World Beach Pro Tour event in Veracruz, Mexico, and an elite event at Newport Beach in California, US.<\/p>\n

They also trained at California\u2019s Hermosa Beach, \u201cone of the beach volleyball hubs in the world\u201d, said Fuller.<\/p>\n

Now that they know the other teams in their pool \u2013 Cuba, Portugal and Benin \u2013 they can begin strategising.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea said they were \u201cquite a physical team\u201d despite being smaller than most in the sport, with his height being 195cm and Fuller at 190cm.<\/p>\n

They \u201cchop and change\u201d back-court and front-court positions, but O\u2019Dea predominantly blocks.<\/p>\n

\" Fuller (left) and O’Dea’s (right) next goal is qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Photo \/ Delaney Peranich<\/p>\n

High-performance beach volleyball coach for New Zealand, Jason Lochead<\/a>, said one of the great things about the world championships is knowing their opponents ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us the chance to prepare properly for each match, something we don\u2019t usually get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lochead joined the high-performance programme in 2021 and has had a \u201chuge impact\u201d on volleyball in New Zealand, Fuller said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea said \u201cfeeding athletes through good volleyball coaches and high-school programmes\u201d helped the Bay of Plenty produce talented beach volleyballers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a whole lot of opportunity for people once they leave school to follow a professional indoor route<\/a> unless they go overseas. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if you want to stay in New Zealand, beach volleyball is your only option really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenBen O’Dea (left) and Brad Fuller (right) won the World Beach Pro Tour Futures tournament in Mount Maunganui, March 6-9. Photo \/ That Guy Photography<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea said Mount Maunganui had become a hub for beach volleyball. <\/p>\n

It hosted more tournaments as well as the high-performance programme. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best beach in New Zealand for playing beach volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea said he used to watch the pro tour on Mount Maunganui beach when he was in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to follow something when you see someone ahead of you [doing it]. It\u2019s a natural progression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuller said funding was a \u201cconstant\u201d battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably in a better position this year. We\u2019ve received funding from Sport New Zealand, which has been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it would be great to keep that going forward to \u201ccontinue to build the sport in New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\n

Balancing their day jobs, families, and beach volleyball had also been difficult. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea runs a solar panel cleaning business with his brothers, while Fuller works for the Tauranga City Council as a team leader of the library and community hub.<\/p>\n

Fuller said it was tough with a young son, 2-year-old Riley, and he tried to keep his schedule flexible enough to make the most of family life.<\/p>\n

After worlds, the Beach Blacks will strive for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top 25 teams in the world automatically qualify based on points, and four continental spots are given to each continent, with Australasia combined with Asia.<\/p>\n

The Beach Blacks are currently ranked outside of the top 25. <\/p>\n

While they aimed to improve their seeding, they would also pursue qualification through the continental route. <\/p>\n

To do this, they compete in specific tournaments and must rank in the top four for the continent in terms of points.<\/p>\n

The World Beach Volleyball Championships will be held in Adelaide from November 14 to 23.<\/p>\n

Bijou Johnson<\/a> is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Beach Ferns have also qualified, with Waikato\u2019s Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald the first women\u2019s combination to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[14846,7972,8136,5759,1888,2082,78,111,139,1536,69,5106,90,66755,213,1324,37865,223,810,69297,377,17450],"class_list":["post-92754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adelaide","tag-beach","tag-blacks","tag-championships","tag-first","tag-for","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-olympics","tag-on","tag-qualify","tag-sports","tag-stop","tag-taurangas","tag-the","tag-up","tag-volleyball","tag-world","tag-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}