NZ Beach Volleyball champs underway at Mount Maunganui

TOP CHANCE: Tauranga's Alice Bain will contest the New Zealand Beach Volleyball Championships with team mate Julia Tilley at Mount Main Beach from today until Sunday. PHOTO: FILE

The New Zealand Beach Volleyball Championships from today until Sunday afternoon is the final event on the NZL Beach Volleyball Tour for the 2016-2017 summer.

The overall Tour Champions trophies will be decided as well as the national championships.

The national champs will be contested between the best 12 teams in the country for both genders with likely interest in the performances of the NZ Secondary Schools gold medallists Hikaru Han and Libby Houghton of Spotswood, who are stepping up to have a shot at the best senior players.

The Spotswood pairing took the secondary schools title last weekend at Mount Maunganui with Tyran Gillespie and Billy Johnstone of Western Heights winning the senior boys' title.

Teams competing at the national champs have plenty of motivation in trying to qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. To do so, teams must achieve high results on the new-format World Tour over the next six months.

The first of these events will be March 3-5 in Australia and the main draw was confirmed with the maximum-allowable six New Zealand teams making the cut.

This was a first for New Zealand, so there is plenty of incentive to do well at the Mount.

Bay of Plenty interest will focus on the women's pair of Julia Tilley and Alice Bain and the men's team of Sam and Ben O'Dea.

Tilley is New Zealand's number-one women's player. She hails from Gisborne but is now resident at Mount Maunganui. She teamed up last year with Bain, who came to prominence as a talented volleyballer at Tauranga Girls' College.

Last year they competed on the Asian circuit and became the first New Zealand women to make an Asian tour final. The pair won the Bay of Plenty Times Mount Maunganui Open last month.

Brothers Sam and Ben O'Dea have joined forces with the Commonwealth Games and Tokyo Olympics in 2020 firmly in their sights. The experienced pair are expected to advance to the finals on Sunday.

Ben, 24, competed around the world at senior level from the age of 16 on the national and international stage and had been competing in Europe on the indoor court.

Sam, 26, and former Otumoetai College schoolmate Mike Watson were part of New Zealand's Rio Olympic bid that fell agonisingly close to an Olympic berth last year.

The 12 team elite Division 1 begins today and runs right through until Sunday while the Division 2 competition is on Saturday only.