Bansley y Wilkerson hit reset button ahead of Tokyo
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, October 22, 2020 – The 2020 beach
volleyball season has looked nothing like what Heather Bansley
and Brandie Wilkerson had envisioned. While some teams have been
able to compete on national tours and even get limited
international activity at events like the 2020 King of the Court
and this year’s European Championships, the Canadians have spent
most of the last seven months training at home.
Wilkerson was able to compete in the three-tournament American
AVP season between July and August, but Bansley hasn’t appeared
in an event since last November, at the FIVB Beach Volleyball
World Tour 4-star Chetumal Open in Mexico.
With the Toronto winter on the horizon, the Canadians have
decided to head south to Rio de Janeiro to enjoy what they hope
will be a prolific two-month training camp in Brazil.
“The first week here has been really great,” Bansley told Beach
Volleyball World. The 33-year-old defender, who finished fifth
at the 2016 Rio Olympics with former partner Sarah Pavan added:
“I haven’t been able to train outdoors since Brandie and I were
here in March for another training camp. Mentally it has been a
very challenging year for me, with no opportunities to compete
and with training being very limited in Toronto. I really felt
the need to be able to train at a high level and properly
prepare for next year and we wouldn’t be able to recreate the
training conditions we have here in Canada at this moment.”
There are good reasons for their repeated trips to Rio as the
Canadians, who rank sixth in the provisional FIVB Olympic
Ranking, started working with Brazilian coach Rico de Freitas at
the beginning of the year. He is the very same coach who led
Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas to victory at the 2015 FIVB
Beach Volleyball World Championships and to silver at the Rio
Olympics.
A long-time World Tour coach, and son of the legendary
volleyball coach Bebeto de Freitas, Rico has not been able to
work with Bansley and the 28-year-old Wilkerson for as long as
he would have liked, so their daily sessions on the sands of the
Leblon beach have been intense.
“I am thrilled and very grateful to be working with Rico and his
team,” Bansley added. “It is very humbling to have a world
champion and Olympic silver medallist coach who wants to work
with you. His training style is different to what I have
experienced in the past and I am really enjoying the intensity
and high level at practice every single day. I feel we can
accomplish more and be more efficient on the court.”
Their coach's mission is to give the Canadians the tools they
need to bounce back after a disappointing 2019 campaign.
In 2018 the pair secured three gold medals and six podium
placements, which took them to the top of the FIVB World
Ranking. But the following year, they had to settle for just
three bronze medals and a 17th position at some of the most
important tournaments on the calendar, including the FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Championships, the Vienna Major and the FIVB
World Tour Finals.
“Brandie and I have developed and gained a lot of experience
together over the past four years,” Bansley reflected. “We have
had moments proving that we can be one of the top teams in the
world, but have also struggled with consistency. We are using
this training period to help us prepare for whenever tournaments
resume. Brandie and I are approaching this extra time as an
opportunity to be even better and more prepared for the Olympics
than we were at the start of the year, as sort of a reset. We
still have a lot of room to improve and I am confident that Rico
will help us grow and push us to where we want to be in time for
us to achieve our Olympic goals.”
With the 2021 FIVB World Tour calendar still to be released and
uncertainty concerning international travel expected to
continue, the Canadians have decided to remain in Brazil until
December, where they hope they can play on the country’s
national tour or at least practice with some of the top
Brazilian teams.
Future trips to Rio are not off the table either.
“I believe Rico’s experiences and successes as an Olympic coach
with a medal will be extremely valuable to us. He knows how to
successfully prepare for the Olympics both physically and
mentally,” Bansley, a three-time FIVB World Tour Best Defensive
Player added. “Because of travel restrictions, Rico is not able
to come to Toronto, so we have committed to training in Rio. We
are committed to doing everything we need to be the best we can
in Tokyo, and if that means spending most of our preseason in
Rio or outside of Canada, we are prepared to do that.” |