The UWC Beach Volleyball Club pairing of Leo Williams and Jerome Fredericks flew the African flag high when they took part in the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach Volleyball World Cup Final in Brazil in early June 2013.

The two qualified for the event as the top pair in Africa, after they beat, among others, the 2012 Olympians Grant Goldschmidt and Freedom Chiya, who are also UWC Club members. By winning all three national events they took part in since the beginning of the year, they earned the most points on the South African Beach Volleyball Circuit and on the continent.

The Mitchell’s Plain-born Williams, who now lives in Newlands, graduated with a BCom from UWC in 2008 and is doing his Honours in Marketing and Management at the University. He has also been selected to represent South Africa at the World Student Games in Kazan, Russia from 1-7 July.

Williams believes that although they finished 9th out of 10 countries in Brazil (the tournament was won by the Brazilian pair of Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego), they are not far from the rest of the world when it comes to beach volleyball.

“The skill set is the same, but other countries put more hours of training to the sport, they play more international tournaments and they have better facilities than we do,” Williams explains.

Now Williams and Fredericks are eyeing the FIVB Beach Volleyball Championships to be held in Poland in July, and the FIVB Durban-KZN Open to be held on Durban’s New Beach in December 2013. The pair are proudly sponsored by Mainstay.