Beach volleyball gains support as Commonwealth sport
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 10, 2011 - The 71 member countries of the Commonwealth Games Federation will be asked to vote on the right for future hosts to include beach volleyball at their Commonwealth Games when they meet at General Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis in November.
It’s one of the key recommendations arising out of the quadrennial review of the Commonwealth Games sports program undertaken in Malaysia this week. The CGF Executive Board, which met in Kuala Lumpur on Monday and Tuesday, will propose to the General Assembly, which is due to meet in St Kitts on November 11, that beach volleyball be added as a category two sport, meaning hosts in 2018 and beyond will have the right to include it in their sports programme.
Sports Review Committee chairman and CGF vice-president, HRH Tunku Imran, said: “It is fundamental that our sports programme continues to evolve in such a way as to sustain the Commonwealth Games as one of the world’s leading multi-sport events.
Rugby league also made a push for inclusion, and while the sport will not join beach volleyball as a category two sport at this stage, it has won executive board support for inclusion as a category three sport, an important first step toward its presence at future Games.
The list of category one sports remains unaltered – aquatics-swimming, athletics, badminton, boxing (men only), hockey, lawn bowls, netball (women only), rugby 7s (men only), squash and weightlifting – but there are a number of changes proposed within events to be contested in those sports.
The Committee’s recommendations will now be circulated to all the CGF’s members and International Federations for further consideration and comment and then formally considered by the CGF’s General Assembly.
