KEY POINTS:
As far as Christmas presents go, the $50,000 Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead received will be hard to beat.
It has, says Pitman, half of New Zealand's No 1 beach volleyball duo, given them a realistic tilt at qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.
For the past three years the talented duo have slogged away on beach volleyball's world tour under their own steam, relying on personal sponsors and benevolent backers to get them to events. There are 19 events on the world tour this year, including four grand slams and the world championships in Switzerland in July.
While the tour can be quite lucrative for the top teams (the total prizepool this year is NZ$6.46 million), for those like Pitman and Lochhead who sit outside the top 24, it is a hand-to-mouth existence. Unless they are one of the eight teams that qualify for the final 32-team competition, they don't get their accommodation or food paid for. Considering there are 64 pairs fighting for those final eight spots, it can be a white-knuckle ride.
"You've got three games in one day and you've got to win them to get into the main draw. That then gives you prize money, food and accommodation. It's pretty much a case of getting everything... or nothing."
Pitman said the pressure of literally playing for your dinner can create tension that is often unpleasant.
"And the guys that are in that top 24 don't want to go down and put themselves under that pressure. That makes it hard to break into."
Pitman and Lochhead sit outside the 24 automatic qualifiers, their current ranking is in the mid-30s, but are considered an excellent chance of qualifying for the 24-team Olympic field as each country can only have two representatives. Some nations, like Brazil, Switzerland and the US, have more than two teams in the top 24 in the world rankings so there are spots up for grabs.
Sparc has recognised this and at the end of last year came to the party with a $50,000 grant to help them achieve their dream.
To say Pitman was rapt would be to define understatement.
"Just before Christmas we found out, so it was great," Pitman said after the pair had dismantled fellow Kiwis Charles Leota and Damon Haenga in the quarter-finals of the New Zealand Open at Stanley St yesterday. The tournament concludes today with Pitman and Lochhead hopeful of becoming the first New Zealand duo to win their home title.
"Now we don't have to worry about things like how we're going to eat. We can just concentrate on getting to the Olympics and work on our training."
The money will allow them to have coach Craig Seuseu - the Godfather of New Zealand beach volleyball - with them more often, as well as employing a strength trainer.
Pitman said he felt that he and Lochhead - Pitman is the taller and the front-of-court player while Lochhead is a supreme scrambler and set-up man - were right on the cusp of Olympic standard now. Over the years they have beaten all but three or four combinations in the world's top 20. It's doing it consistently that counts, though.
"We don't want to be fighting for those last two or three Olympic spots... We want to be comfortably in and have a really good Olympic campaign where we'll be aiming for a top-10 result."
Pitman and Lochhead would have time up their sleeves too, if beach volleyball wasn't such a shirtless exercise. At 25 and 22 respectively, the Tauranga residents are the youngest combination in the upper echelons of the world rankings.
"These days beach volleyballers are peaking at 33," Pitman said.
The biggest obstacle today is likely to be Estonian duo Rivo Vesik and Kristjan Kais who are in the world's top 10. They have won the past two events on the tour at Mt Maunganui and Ohope, while the Kiwi duo won the first two at Matarangi and Wellington.
