Home sweet home for Grimalts

Beach volleyball stars Esteban and Marco Grimalt believe playing at home will give them an extra advantage when they go for glory in the South American Games.

Santiago – The Chilean number ones point to two different factors that could help them – the venue and level of support.

The location switches from the usual beach environment to Parque Peñalolén.

Esteban Grimalt said: “We train in Santiago and we´re used to the conditions here. There won´t be much wind and that should help us.”

As for support, the 23-year-old said: “We´re always proud to play on home soil and represent our country. In the Games, we´ll be at home and we´ll have our families, friends and the public supporting us. At times that can increase the pressure a little, but we enjoy it.

“You enjoy a triumph at home much more than one away from home.”

With regards to their biggest rivals, Esteban points to the threat posed by the Brazilians, but insists they are by no means quaking in their boots.

He said: “Brazil are going to come with an even stronger team than in the South American circuit, but we’ve played well against their teams in the past.

“We´re going to have confidence in what we can do, it depends on us. We´re going to go game by game, step by step and see what we can do.”

Last weekend´s runners-up spot in the South American circuit at Viña del Mar showed the cousins are in the kind of form that could make them gold medal challengers.

However, they know they can´t affored to let four match points slip away like they did in the final against the Argentinian duo of Ian Mehamed and Julián Azaad.

Esteban said: “It was a good result, but we are a bit upset at not having closed out a match that we should have won. It´s an experience that we have to learn from. We have to be better prepared if we´re in that situation in the future.”

The Grimalts are optimistic the fans will turn out in numbers to back the South American Games and make it one to remember.

Esteban added: “Volleyball is a sport that is played a lot in Chile, though not so much beach volleyball.

“However, our sport is very attractive, more so the women´s game because they play in bikinis! We hope all the sports draw big crowds.”