Team Scotland’s Beach Volleyball Pairs secured their place in history on the Gold Coast earlier today, with both the men and women winning their opening matches as the sport made its Commonwealth Games debut.

The Men’s Pair of Robin Miedzybrodzki and Seain Cook were first up against Sri Lanka, a largely unknown outfit who put up a fight right to the end, but it was the Scottish duo who were victorious, winning 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 16-14).

Delighted with the result Cook said: “I’m very happy to win. It was a tough slog. After the first set we thought we would be cruising, but they came back and the third set was an absolute fight.”

The Women’s Pair of Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts were up next against Grenada in an equally action-packed match, however in the end they ran out 2-0 (21-8, 21-11) winners in just 28 minutes.

“We stuck to our game plan. We wanted to put them under pressure with our serve and we also wanted to enjoy the moment,” said Beattie, who was inspired by the electric atmosphere inside the 4,000-seat venue on Coolangatta’s stunning beachfront.

“It’s absolutely amazing. You can prepare for anything you’d like, but nothing compares to coming out in front of such a great crowd, and we had great Scottish support that made it even better.”

The significance of these matches as part of the first ever Commonwealth Games Beach Volleyball competition was summed up by Robin Miedzybrodzki, who added: “It’s great to have Beach Volleyball in the Commonwealth Games and to be able to pull on a Team Scotland jersey.”

Team Scotland’s Beach Volleyball players will be back in action again tomorrow evening with the Women’s Pair looking to turn the tables on Cyprus, who beat them in the European group qualifiers, forcing them to wait for a wild card. The men face Sierra Leone. Those matches take place at 19:30hrs (10:30hrs UK time) and 21:30hrs (12:30hrs UK time) respectively.