DEFENDING champions of the JustBet/TVJSN Men’s Beach Volleyball Competition, Gatasheu Bonner and Ryck Webb returned to winning ways when the chalked up their first victory in the 2013 competition.

Their success came in the third and final Preliminary Round leg on Saturday at the UDC Beach in Ocho Rios.

Bonner and Webb easily got the better of Rojey Hutchinson and Shavar Bryan 21-11, 21-9 in the final, but they had to spike their way past some of their main rivals on way to the final.

In the quarter-finals they defeated second leg runner-up, Oliver Reid and his Italian partner, Alex Talgio, 15-12. They then went on to beat the winners of the two previous legs, Dellan Brown and Christopher Walters in the semi-finals 15-11; 15-6. Their return to form will now set the stage for an interesting Play Off round, starting on Saturday at the UWI Mona Beach Volleyball Court.

It was the Jamaica Under-19 representatives, 16-year-old Hutchinson and Bryan, who were the talk of the day. Having placed third in the second leg, Hutchinson and Bryan showed no fear for their more experienced opponents throughout the day’s matches. The youngsters, who represented Jamaica at the FIVB World U-19 Beach Volleyball Championship in Portugal in July 2013, are preparing to compete in the Youth Olympic Qualifier in Trinidad and Tobago in November. They are Jamaica’s first representatives at a World-level volleyball or beach volleyball event and the experience has done their confidence a world of good.

Major Warrenton Dixon, President of the Jamaica Volleyball Association, was full of praise for Hutchinson and Bryan. “The performances of the boys during the last two legs of the tour make me feel like a proud father. It is clear that the investment we have been making is paying off. It is just unfortunate that we do not have the financial resources necessary to keep them in regular training. These boys are on the verge of making Jamaica really proud and we will do what we can with the resources we have to bring this to fruition.”