Josh Binstock digs the ball out of the sand during the Canadian Beach Volleyball
National Championship in Toronto last week. Binstock and partner Matt Zbyszewski won the title and now look forward to qualifying stages for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London,England.
Sports
September 27, 2008 10:19 PM
Mike Hayakawa
Josh Binstock is on top of the Canadian beach volleyball world.
The 27-year-old Richmond Hill resident can lay claim to that title after he joined forces with Matt Zbyszewski, 27, of Toronto to win the recent Canadian National Championships on the sands of Ashbridges Bay in Toronto.
Seeded fifth entering the competition, Binstock and Zbyszewski captured the gold medal when they defeated top seed Jessi Lelliot and Ahren Cadieux, also of Ontario.
Just one day earlier, Binstock and Zbyszewski were handed their first loss in the tournament by Lelliott and Cadieux which set the stage for the dramatic one-game, winner take all match.
Winning the men’s title helped Binstock fulfill a long-time goal since he started playing beach volleyball in 2001 when he won a silver medal for Ontario at the Canada Summer Games.
Binstock is no stranger to success. He is a three-time U-24 national champion and played with the senior national team.
“Since I’ve been playing in the men’s division, I had never won the title before, but had won bronze twice, said the former University of Toronto player.
“So, this year, it feels great to be able to take that next step and win the gold. I hope this is the first of many for me.”
What makes Binstock and Zbyszewski’s feat more remarkable is the fact, they only teamed up four days before the tournament.
That was a story within itself, Binstock said.
“Matt (Zbyszewski) had been playing with Jessi Lelliott all year on the world tour in Europe and I wasn’t able to play on the world tour this year because of my school commitments,” he said.
“So I was playing with a guy from British Columbia who ended up tearing his meniscus in his knee so I was left without a partner.”
The weekend before the national championships, he played with Conrad Leinemann, a former Canadian Olympic member, against Zbyszewski and Lelliott in the finals of a tournament.
“But I couldn’t play with Conrad at the nationals because he already had promised his usual partner Rich Van Huizen he would play with him as I was just borrowing Conrad for that tournament while Rich rested his knee before nationals.”
The Monday before nationals, Lelliott got a call from Cadieux to be his partner.
Cadieux’s normal partner, Mark Heese was nursing a shoulder injury and couldn’t participate.
That left the door open for Zbyszewski and Binstock to team up, however, because of work commitments, Binstock was llimited in his practice sessions.
Tenacious defence helped the team to the gold medal, Binstock said.
Because there are only two players in beach volleyball, the best strategy is to have the taller player play at the net and the smaller, quicker player in the back court to dig out volleys, Binstock said.
However, in this team’s case, both Binstock and Zbyszewski are tall and are strongest at the net.
To figure out how to use this to their advantage, Binstock went back and watched a tape of the gold medal game from last month’s Beijing Olympics.
“I knew (having two forward specialists) could be our weak link ... I literally took three hours to sit, watch, dissect, pause and rewind the game while I watched how (United States) defender Todd Rogers, the best defensive player in the world, played defence.”
The strategy worked as it allowed the duo to play the perfect game, he added.
Winning this national title is Step 1 for this team.
Now, they are going to seek sponsorship so they can try to compete at the 2012 Olympics in London, England.