The Comox Valley's two pro beach volleyball players got off to a good start at this week's stop on the FIVB World Tour.
Martin Reader and Maverick Hatch are competing in the April 24-29 Silesia Open at Myslowice, Poland and both advanced to the qualification tournament.
Reader and his partner Josh Binstock of Toronto won their first two qualifying matches on Wednesday, beating David Kufa/Ondrej Pridal of the Czech Republic 21-14, 21-14 and Sam Boehm/Isaac Kapa of Australia 22-24, 21-15, 15-13.
Hatch and his partner Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont. also won their first two qualifying matches on Wednesday, beating Tiziano Andreatta/Matteo Cecchini of Italy 21-18, 25-23 and Casey Jennings/Bill Strickland of the United States 21-19, 28-26.
Wednesday's qualification tournament had almost 60 teams playing for eight spots in main draw. The main draw matches started Thursday with the semifinals scheduled for Saturday and the medal matches for Sunday.
The $190,000 Silesia Open is the second competition on the 14-tournament men鈥檚 calendar and the first of three men鈥檚 only stops. The women are competing in Sanya, China this week.
After that both men and women will travel to Shanghai for the first Grand Slam of 2012 from April 30 to May 6. The World Tour will return to Poland following the London 2012 Olympic Games for the Stare Jablonski Grand Slam from Aug. 13-19.
