March 4 - The first stone of a new beach volleyball Development Centre  in Lorca, Spain, was laid today, a new initiative which officials hope will help the country close the gap on its rivals in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics.



Regional and local authorities, as well as various representatives of Spanish volleyball were present at the ceremony which was chaired by the Director of the Sports Council of Murcia region, Antonio Peñalver, the Mayor of Lorca, Francisco Jódar and the President of the Spanish Volleyball Federation, Agustín Martín Santos.

Spain has enjoyed relative success in FIVB competitions, most recently finishing fifth in the FIVB 2007 Men’s World Cup.

The goal of the new development is to become best beach volleyball center in Europe, and the two best Spanish beach volleyball teams, Herrera-Gavira and Mesa-Lario, and trainer Sixto Jimenez also attended the event.

The Development Centre will have an area of 8.358´8 square meters and the project has a budget of €2.03 million (£1.82 million).

The building of the complex will be in two phases, with phase one devoted to the construction of changing rooms, four beach volleyball areas, a gym and a covered beach volleyball sports hall, and phase two dedicated to a second wing of the building and a volleyball sports hall.

The first phase is due to be completed in eight months, with the exception of the beach volleyball sports hall, which will take a year to build.

The Centre will host all the Spanish Federation beach volleyball programmes, at both grassroots and senior levels, as well as the men’s and women’s teams hoping to represent Spain in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Martin Santos said: "The construction of this centre places Spain in the front row of beach volleyball.

"These outstanding facilities will be unique and only comparable to the centers in Brazil, hence bringing Spanish beach volleyball to the forefront of the sport.”