Shauna Mullin has spent more days on the beach this year than most Scots - but it is volleyballs she has been chasing rather than beach balls.

It is three years since the Edinburgh player started out on her Olympic dream and, since featuring on these pages then, she has made a considerable imprint on the sand along with English partner Zara Dampney.

After two-and-a-half years playing full-time and jetting to the likes of Brasilia, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Moscow, the GB pair are making waves against some of the best pairings in the world.

It can be a huge task simply reaching the main draw of international competitions, such is the standard, but the full-time GB programme is starting to pay dividends.

At a top-class event in Shanghai in May, Mullin and Dampney came close to an upset win over legendary American Misty May-Treanor, double Olympic gold medallist, and her partner Nicole Branagh, narrowly losing 17-21 18-21.

The pair also achieved a ninth place in Kristiansand, Norway last August where they upset the seedings and beat some established teams to show they can mix it with the best.

It was the same week as Scotland's football team were in the country on World Cup duty with rather less spectacular results, crashing 4-0.

"That is still the highlight for us so far," says Mullin, "But it was also great playing against Misty May.
"We ran her and her partner close but Misty then used her experience to change the rhythm of her serve to switch up the game and we didn't have the experience to deal with it. But we're learning all the time."

Mullin, 25, is bidding to become only the second Scot to play beach volleyball at the Olympics - current GB indoor coach Audrey Cooper playing in Atlanta in 1996 when the game made its Olympic debut.

"The game has changed a lot since 1996 and every country treats it very seriously now and puts resources into it," Mullin continues, "There are now a lot of different routes to qualify for the Olympics.

"I still sometimes miss playing indoors [she won two Scottish League titles with Team Edinburgh] but I played with London Malory when I was in the country and my travelling allowed last season as you sometimes need to be part of a team like that. But I think my feet is now firmly in the sand.

"We had a purpose-built court in Bristol last year but the company who owned it decided it wasn't economically viable and so they shipped the sand out and I think it's now used for netball or cricket.

"It meant we had to travel 11 weeks out of 12 for training in the close-season, going away on the Monday and coming back on the Friday or Saturday. We were in Tenerife four times, Berlin, Hamburg,Toulouse and Prague.

"I've never sat down and worked out how many miles we travel a year but we seem to be in every airline's frequent flier programme and we're hoping to get some rewards through that, although we travel Easyjet a lot and they don't have a reward scheme!"

The European beach circuit has been curtailed this year due to lack of a major backer but there are few spare weekends on the calendar and there is the small matter of the Confederation Cup to look forward to in Malta in September where the GB pair have been drawn against Switzerland, Denmark and the hosts.

Mullin has come a long way since playing indoors for Team Edinburgh and Scotland (who she represented at the World Championship first round against England five years ago) but she still considers the Scottish capital as home.

Having travelled around with her parents when growing up, she is accustomed to a nomadic lifestyle but she points out: "I always said that home was where my parents were but they now live in Greece and I certainly don't consider myself from there. I still consider myself from Edinburgh.

"Looking back, it was all really exciting when we first started playing at Princes Street Gardens as part of the British Urban Tour. We were just starting out and beginning to realise what lay ahead for us.

"We still have a lot of achieve and we want to finish as high as we can in the rankings over the summer to show the progress we have made."

RM
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