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SPORTSSaturday 6 May 2017
Making waves on the beach: Walsh Jennings will skip AVP tour
JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer
Five-time Olympian Kerri
Walsh Jennings is looking
for a new partner — and
a new beach volleyball
tour — after rejecting an
exclusivity agreement with
the AVP that would have
locked her into the circuit
through the 2020 Summer
Games in Tokyo.
In her first public comments
since breaking with the big-
gest, richest and longest-
running domestic tour,
Walsh Jennings told The As-
sociated Press on Thursday
that the deal lacked the vi-
sion to grow the game and
was “a death sentence
for our sport.” Among
her complaints: an eight-
stop circuit, with what she
called minimal growth in
prize money or the number
of events, dooming ath-
letes to live with their par-
ents or take full-time jobs to
support themselves.
“We’re being kept in a
small little fishbowl,” Walsh
Jennings told the AP. “I
know our sport deserves
more. We’ve been told
we’re small, and we be-
lieve it.”
AVP owner Donald Sun
declined to respond to
the comments. But when
Walsh Jennings missed the
deadline to sign before this
week’s season-opening
Huntington Beach (Califor-
nia) Open, he told the AP:
“I respect her decisions,
Austria’s Lukas Poestelberger celebrates as he crosses the finish
line to win the first stage of the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Italy cycling
race, from Alghero to Olbia, Italy, Friday, May 5, 2017. control. The 25-year-old me, maglia rosa.”
OLBIA, Sardinia (AP) —
Lukas Postlberger had a
dream Grand Tour debut
as the Austrian surprisingly
won the opening stage of

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, file photo, United States’ Kerri Walsh Jennings digs for a ball Beach volleyball athletes
while playing Brazil during the women’s beach volleyball bronze medal match of the 2016 Sum- have quarreled with USA
mer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Volleyball, arguing that the
national governing body’s
Associated Press efforts were skewed to-
ward the indoor game. The
and I wish her well.” taining separate partner- “I have a ton of respect for AVP twice declared bank-
The decision to opt out of ships domestically and April,” she said. “I just have ruptcy, and since emerg-
the AVP tour also means abroad. Ross’ decision to a different vision for the fu- ing from the second reor-
Walsh Jennings will split with sign the deal means she ture.” ganization it has found it-
April Ross, her partner in Rio couldn’t play in the com- With its party atmosphere self in competition with the
de Janeiro when they won peting National Volleyball dropped into picturesque NVL, even though all agree
the Olympic bronze medal. League, which lists four backdrops like London’s that one, stable tour would
Walsh Jennings won three 2017 events on its website. Horse Guards Parade and be best for the sport. And,
straight gold medals with Walsh Jennings said she Rio’s Copacabana Beach, when the NCAA consid-
Misty May-Treanor, who was disappointed the part- beach volleyball emerges ered adding beach volley-
retired after the London nership had to end. Asked every four years as the dar- ball to its list of sanctioned
Games. if the two could get back ling of the Olympics. (The programs, among the op-
Walsh Jennings and Ross together before the qualifi- bikinis don’t hurt with the TV ponents were indoor vol-
could continue to pair up cation period for the Tokyo audience, either.) leyball coaches who were
on the international tour, Olympics begins in 2019, But the sport’s efforts to afraid of losing their top
where teams earn points to she said, “April and I are establish a stable U.S. tour athletes to the sandier, sex-
qualify for the 2020 Games, finished. We’re not com- have left it running in the ier side of the sport.
but that would mean main- peting together anymore.” sand. Walsh Jennings, who has
been at the forefront of
many of these fights, said
her goal remains to do
what’s best for her sport. As
its most visible and market-
able athlete, at least in the
United States, she is able to
make a living by relying on
endorsement deals others
don’t have.
“I am in a blessed position,”
she said.
Walsh Jennings also said
her objection to the deal
has nothing to do with a
lawsuit she has filed against
the AVP, claiming breach
of a personal services con-
tract, or with a dispute over
rule changes that led her
to boycott an event last
summer.q
Lukas Postlberger wins opening
Giro stage in dream debut
ers but Postlberger, a lead- (Bennett). Through the city There was a minute’s si-
out man, hit the front with the leadout trains, I don’t lence before the start, in
two kilometers to go in sup- know, they lost my wheel tribute to Michele Scarpo-
port of Bora-Hansgrohe or something and I had a ni, who died last month at
teammate Sam Bennett, gap,” said Postlberger, who the age of 37 after a colli-
and when a gap opened became the first Austrian to sion with a van while train-
behind him he simply kept wear the pink jersey. ing near his home.
on going. “I heard over the radio, The Astana team, which
Postlberger looked back ‘C’mon, Posty go try!’ and Scarponi would have led at
several times, almost in dis- I put all I have in. It worked this race, was on the front
belief, as none of the sprint- out: victory for the team, line of the bunch for the
ers appeared keen to take first professional victory for very first part of the course.
It was a remarkably calm
Associated Press rider even had time to raise Caleb Ewan won the bunch opening stage for much of
his arms in the air as he sprint for second place fol- the day. There was an early
the 100th Giro d’Italia to crossed the line, winning in lowed by Andre Greipel at break of six riders whose
claim the pink jersey on Fri-
day. 5 hours, 13 minutes, 35 sec- the end of the 206-kilome- advantage went up to
Victory was expected to
go to one of the top sprint- onds. ter (128-mile) leg along the more than seven minutes
“We wanted to try for a northern coast of Sardinia, as there was no particular
sprint for the final for Sam from Alghero to Olbia. urgency in the peloton.q