Silver Jubilee of Beach Volleyball in Sri Lanka
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In 2011, the 1st South Asian Beach Volleyball Games was held in Sri Lanka, when Sri Lanka's Men's and Women’s teams won Gold and Silver respectively.
Beach Volleyball (BVB) was first introduced to Sri Lanka (SL) in 1992. This segment of Volleyball worldwide, reportedly commenced in 1915, on the Waikiki Beaches of Hawaii, although the exact date is not known. Subsequently it spread to Brazil and countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea but, here too the year is not known. In 1976, the first World BVB Championship was held on the beaches of Palisades in California, and since then, 220 countries play BVB. BVB was first introduced as an Olympic Sport at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. In addition, the Asian Games, Youth Olympics and Youth Asian Games adopted it. It will be included for the first time in the Commonwealths Games in 2018.
In the 1996 Olympics, the Men’s BVB Gold Medal was won by the USA and the Women’s Gold Medal by Brazil. In the 1998 Asian Games, China won the Men’s BVB title while Thailand won the Women’s title.
In June 2, 1992, the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation (SLVF) conducted a Men’s National BVB Championship which was won by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority team of Kalika Wasanthapriya and H. A. Wickramarathne. In 2000, the Women’s National BVB Championship was introduced, which was won by the Sri Lanka Air force team of M. Wasanthi Kumari and Kumari Wanniarachchi.
Sri Lanka first participated in an International tournament in 2003, at the Loma-Samila Championship in Thailand, and since then participated in this Championship, to date.                                                      The maiden Squad
Men: Roshan Dammika Silva (Captain), Jude Mahesh Perera, K. Rohana Thilak, U.N. Yapa Nihal Women: Geethika Gunawardena (Captain), Thakshila Niranjalee, Anusha Deepani, M. Wasanthi Kumari.
In 2009, at the Asia Pacific BVB Championship held in Bangladesh, SL won its first International Medal when the Men’s team of Wasantha Rathnapala and Mahesh Perera won the Bronze Medal. Team Manager was Group Captain Pathman de Costa.
In 2011, at the first South Asian Beach Games held in SL, we won our first Gold Medals in both the Men’s and Women’s events. From 2003 to-date, SL has won 4 Gold, 5 Silver and 6 Bronze at International BVB Championships.
The first Sri Lanka Beach Volleyball Team that participated at an International Championship in 2003
In the last 25 years, SL BVB teams have participated at the following Championships. namely Asian Championship, Lusophonia Games, Asian Games, Asian Beach Games, Youth Olympic Games, South Asian Beach Games and the Central Asian Beach Games. The first International BVB Referee from Sri Lanka was the late S. Senanayake, while the present International Referees are Janaka Batugaha and Prabath Maduka.
Withn the Asian Zone, SL has defeated Indonesia, Australia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Iran, China, Japan and Thailand and outside the Asian Zone we have beaten Russia, Netherlands, Mozambique, Angola, Portugal and Morocco.
SL has also won Silver and Bronze at the Men’s World Disabled BVB Championships in Cambodia (2010) Asian Disabled BVB Championship in Malaysia (2011) and World Disabled BVB Championship in Germany (2012).
First BVB Coach Prasanna Udaya Kumara is still in charge. SLVF Vice President- Group Captain Pathman de Costa is a member of the World Military Games BVB Council, after former SLVF President- Dilan Perera’s appointment to the legal committee of the FIVB- the world controlling body of Volleyball.
The Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Education and the SLVF have introduced a special programme to develop BVB here. by including BVB to the National School Games from 2017.
It is also imperative that, the Ministry of Sports, the National Olympic Committee and the SLVF endeavour to include BVB in the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal.
 Susil Ranasinghe   Former General Secretary SLVF (2005-2015)