Tuvalu’s beach volleyball players face disappearing sand due to global warming

Its entire population could fit inside Villa Park four times over, but the tiny Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu has the biggest possible reason to use its participation in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to stamp its identity on the world map.

Global warming is lapping at the fringes of the 26-square-kilometre nation with such haste that the majority of its five-strong team are forced to train on its airport runway, and its beach volleyball players routinely turn up to find the previous day’s practice court has succumbed to the waves.

“In these guys’ lifetime, if nothing changes their homeland won’t be there any more,” said Tuvalu’s Australian beach volleyball coach Marty Collins, after Ampex Isaac and Saaga Malosa lost their opening match 21-10 21-12 to England’s Javier and Joaquin Bello on the site of the former Smithfield fruit and vegetable market.

“They don’t really have a beach that’s wide and flat enough to set up a court. A few places they have had courts in the last few years aren’t really there any more, partly because of global warming.

“In the last few months they had to make a court in the outer islands which a couple of hours’ boat ride away. They went there and they had a little camp. Put it this way – they weren’t staying in hotels out there.”

The issue of its deteriorating borders has become so acute that Fiji has offered some of its islands for Tuvaluans to relocate. “They’re there if and when they need to move, but obviously that’s Plan B,” added Collins. “They want to stay because they have their own language and culture. Hopefully by being here they are putting a face to the situation.”

In these guys' lifetime, if nothing changes their homeland won't be there any more- Tuvalu coach Marty Collins

C