Forget the sun it’s stormy in China!

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Come rain or shine, beach volleyball fans are always smiling like they do here on of the rare rainy days in Klagenfurt; Photo credit: Bernard Horst

Ahhh…beach volleyball. When you think of our great sport you imagine beautiful people, exotic locations, incredible sport and amazing weather.

The skies are blue, there’s not a cloud in the sky, the sun is always shining and everyone is smiling…right?

Well that’s not quite been the case this week at the Xiamen Open in China!

The players have faced a battle of another kind on court with unbelievable weather conditions that you wouldn’t usually associate with beach volleyball.

In the men’s pool fixtures, the guys had to overcome rain and thunderstorms as some tropical weather hit south west China over the past few days. It’s beach volleyball but not as you know it!

But the wind, rain, thunder and lightning was no match for last year’s bronze medalists Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, who won both of their matches in Pool B. The Latvians, who are second seeds, beat both Chinese duo Wuquin Lin and Zequan Lu and Canadian team Grant O’Gorman and San Pedlow in straight sets.

After drying off from the rain Samoilovs tweeted: “Won two games vs China and Canada. Crazy weather conditions here in Xiamen, China, raining and thunderstorm.”

Of course in recent weeks we have given you an insight into how different weather conditions affect beach volleyball – imagine sizzling hot sand burning your feet! Ouch!

But with more wet and wild weather expected in Xiamen this week the players will need to call on all of their years of experience in the game to make it through to the next round. Good luck all!

Aleksandrs Samoilovs tweeted this picture on Wednesday. Where’s the blue sky?! Photo Credit: Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Twitter