LILLIAN Kelly, a Proserpine State High School (PSHS) Year 9 student, has been selected in the Australian Club U16 national volleyball team and is currently competing in China at the U16 Asian Championships.
These are the inaugural U16 Asian Championships after the announcement late last year from Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) of the introduction of an U17 World Championships, in 2024.
The championship is the qualifying event for the 2024 U17 World Volleyball Championships.
PSHS teacher Ben Smith said the school was super proud of Miss Kelly.
“Lilly works extremely hard, is intensely driven, always seeking improvement and deserves every accolade she receives,” he said.
“She not only excels on the sporting field but receives As in most of her subjects academically too, and we are super proud of her.”
The athletes on the Australian team were identified from Volleyball Australia competitions, Australian Youth Volleyball Championships, the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup, and participation in National Development Program (NDP) camps.
Volleyball Australia High Performance program coordinator Myles Roantree said this championship was the first international competition for a lot of the athletes attending.
“The Asian Championships will enable these athletes to gain valuable experience about how the game is played internationally in the Asian region,” Mr Roantree said.
“For most of the athletes, this will give them their first taste of international competition, which will serve them well as they begin their journey on the Volleyball Australia Athlete Pathway.”
The team represented their states at the School Sport Australia Championships, in Canberra, at the beginning of June, before the squads came together for a pre-tournament camp at the Australian Institute of Sport.
The women’s event is being held in Hangzhou, China, while the men’s event is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, at the end of the month.
