Two international volleyball teams are descending on Sheffield where GB Volleyball will host training camps in a build up to their debut appearance in a European Championship qualifier.
It is the first time that Sheffield has hosted such a prestigious international volleyball tournament and the city, through SportsPulse's support, has helped to attract the Danish women and Norwegian men's national teams to train at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield (EISS) ahead of the competition.
The two sides, which arrive in the city this week, will also play friendly international games against the GB men and women's teams which are also hoping to qualify in the first round of the European Championships on May 8.
The Danish women will arrive in the city on April 30 and the Norwegian men on May 1 and will play the British teams in the 'friendlies' on Saturday May 3 at EISS. Each team is bringing 12 players and five coaching and support staff.
Sheffield is home to the national governing body for volleyball in Great Britain the Volleyball High Performance Office is based at the EISS and volleyball chiefs chose the city last year for its national HQ after the home nations came together to form the GB squad.
Representatives from GB Volleyball will meet players from Denmark and Norway at EISS at 10am Friday May 2 during their training camp.
Kenny Barton, Performance Programme Manager for the British Volleyball Federation, said hosting the camp and the first round championships was a real boost for volleyball and the city.
"Sheffield is making its mark in the sport of volleyball and this is an important training opportunity for the British teams. The training camp also gives us vital preparation in advance of 2012 and helps us to ensure that we get the infrastructure in place such as transport requirements and accommodation. We see it as a dynamic way forward in further developing volleyball in the city and nationally," he said.
Volleyball enjoys a huge following in more than 200 nations, including Brazil where it ranks as a national sport - both the men and the women's teams are currently ranked no.1 in the world and the men are the reigning Olympic champions.
For the British teams, the competition will be one of the first times they have competed together in the UK, so GB is hoping to qualify for the first time on the European stage.
The men's team has recently returned from playing a season in the Dutch Pro A league where they faced tough opposition from some of the best players in Europe. The women's team has been training in a daily programme in Sheffield since September 07.
Volleyball in the UK has expansive development programmes in place to raise the prominence of the sport at grass roots levels and in schools. The European Championships will be televised by Sky Sports and the training camp has been planned to mirror the itinerary of the tournament to give the British teams a realistic preparation programme. The European Volleyball Championships First Round sees the GB men's team take on Denmark and the GB women Albania.
"What we want to create is a legacy from 2012 and build upon teams coming here to use our facilities. We hope this will be the first of many top teams that come to Sheffield," added Mr Barton.
David Curtis, Director of SportsPulse, said helping to raise the profile of volleyball and other less prominent sports was an exciting challenge for the team.
"Volleyball does not yet have the same following as other sports in this country. It is an Olympic sport and one that we hope will grow in popularity both nationally and here in Sheffield, in the run up to 2012. That is why we are very pleased to help bring an international training camp to the city to showcase the sport to a wider audience and to demonstrate our capabilities to run successful camps" he said.
"This is the latest of several training camps we have helped to bring to Sheffield as part of a long term business strategy, which also raises the profile of the city as a perfect sporting destination in a range of sports," added Mr Curtis.
SportsPulse has already held successful international training camps for the Saudi Arabian wheelchair athletes and the Bermudian national women's basketball team. It also helped support the delivery of the GB Boxing four nation camp in January.