Robin Miedzybrodzki does not want to get stuck in a Scottish winter when he needs an Australian summer.

A cut to Great Britain's Olympic volleyball funding has left the 25 year-old Edinburgh beach player in limbo when he is in the best shape of his life.

He has had to be content with being a potent weapon in Scottish champions City of Edinburgh's attack but he knows it is far from ideal.

Having been playing on the world beach circuit for the past four years and rubbing bronzed shoulders with the best players in the game, he learned in August the the GB men's beach programme was no longer being supported.

With less than two years to go before London 2012 - and an automatic wildcard place available to a Great Britain team as hosts - Miedzybrodzki knows he is running out of time and money to make that place his own with whichever partner can also raise funds.

“I need to get out to Australia this year so I can prepare properly for next year’s tour,” Miedzybrodzki states, “For me, the latest I can be playing beach volleyball is in January. I want to be playing right now because I’ve had my time off but I’m doing a lot of stuff in the gym to ensure I’m in peak condition.

“To play the whole tour next year would cost around £30,000 but I could probably get away with maybe playing just the European legs and then I’d be looking at more like £20,000. It’s not a fortune. We don’t have massive equipment costs, we just need to get to tournaments and train.

“I think we can offer a Scottish company a unique opportunity to get behind an Olympic athlete all the way to London 2012. I can put any logo on our playing kit, training kit, travelling kit, whatever.

“I can offer international exposure as there are television cameras at every event and, with being the GB team for the next Olympics, the PR we are getting at home and abroad is really good.

“The international volleyball federation (FIVB) want us to do well as they want to promote volleyball around the world and Britain is that last big media market they have not conquered. So they are looking to promote us at every opportunity.

“I can do clinics and promote beach volleyball through company corporate days, all over the UK. There is a training facility in London, there is one in Bath and, in Edinburgh, we could go to Portobello beach, whatever a company wants.

“The major thing is to help push a team towards London 2012 which is a pretty nice thing for any company to say.

“In the next two years, the Olympics is just going to be huge and beach volleyball gets a lot of exposure at the Games.”

There has been a ninth place in a European tour event and a couple of 17th placings in world tour events so far and Miedzybrodzki now knows what it takes to play at the top level.

“Patience is a big thing,” he stresses, “What the last few years has taught me is that you have a lot of games where you go point for point and there's no time to get frustrated. “That's the game and that's how it should unfold and then it's about pushing away at the end of each set. That's what the best teams do well.

"They constantly learn as each point unravels and then they suddenly pounce and the game’s suddenly run away from you.

“I played against Thiago and Pedro Cunha, the Brazilians, and we killed them in the first set. They came back to win the second and the third set went point for point and then it was as if Cunha had spent the whole match working us out.

“At 13-13, he seemed to know what we were going to do and he was all over us. It is a big psychological game but you need to be playing with the best to learn from the best.”

Miedzybrodzki wants to get back to that as soon as possible, before another Olympic dream is buried in the sand.

RM

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