There's a party atmosphere on the streets of Cootamundra in southern New South Wales this weekend, as hundreds of avid volleyballers take each other on in sun-soaked clashes. More than 160 teams have travelled to the inland town to compete in the annual Coota Beach Volleyball event, which is being held for the 23rd time this year.
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00:00 The sun is shining, shoes are off and singlets are on as hundreds of keen volleyballers take
00:07 to the sand here in Cootamundra for the annual Coota Beach Volleyball event.
00:12 The setup you see behind me is the culmination of days of effort.
00:17 Eight hundred tons of sand pulled from the river at Jugiung and trucked over to Cootamundra
00:22 where it`s laid out across the street and leveled out to create a surface that some
00:26 people are saying is better than the beaches in Sydney.
00:30 The whole idea was born up in a pub more than 20 years ago as a group of Cootamundra locals
00:35 were looking for a way to create an event that would get the town some recognition.
00:41 They came up with the idea of doing a beach volleyball event despite the town being more
00:45 than 300 kilometers away from the nearest real beach.
00:49 That event has grown from a one-day event with one court and 16 teams to what we have
00:55 here this weekend, which is a three-day extravaganza.
00:59 More than 160 teams from across New South Wales are competing.
01:04 They`ve all traveled down for the day and they all seem to be having a great time.
01:07 I had a chat to a few of the competitors earlier today.
01:10 This is my second year.
01:11 Last year was so much fun, so I just wanted to come back again.
01:14 This is actually my first year of competing in the event.
01:17 So much fun.
01:18 Look at it.
01:19 Yeah, it`s really good.
01:20 I`m being a part of the Come Alive Gym in Cootamundra.
01:23 So I`ve got the team here and some other friendly friends.
01:26 I`m from a small town in Jigyeong, so it`s about 45 minutes from here.
01:33 I guess I`m just competing because my older sister is, all of her friends.
01:37 And it`s a good excuse.
01:38 Like, we don`t really get much of stuff like this around here, so it`s nice.
01:42 You know what?
01:43 I wasn`t expecting it in the middle of the street, but I`ll take it.
01:44 It`s good.
01:45 The weather is nice.
01:46 The sand is good.
01:47 I can`t complain.
01:48 We`ll be wrapping up this afternoon with finals in all grades.
01:51 But win or lose, one thing is for certain, everybody here is going to be going home,
01:56 regardless of where that is, with great memories of a weekend spent in the sun with mates.
02:01 And really, that`s what the whole event is all about.
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