Javier Bello
Beach Volleyball
Bio
Bio
How I Started
I started playing Volleyball at the age of 6 alongside my brother Joaquin. We started Volleyball because our father, Luis Bello is an ex-professional Volleyball player. We began at the age of 6 when we lived in Madrid, but then our family moved to London and I joined my first club- Richmond Volleyball Club at the age of 11.My brother and I began competing together in indoor and beach Volleyball underage categories and in 2016 we made the jump from competing nationally to competing internationally for the first time as we earned our first England cap at the U17 NEVZA Beach Volleyball Championships.
My Greatest Achievement
My greatest achievement is winning the first ever British medal in a Volleyball world tour in Cortegaça, Portugal. This is one of the most prestigious medals in the Volleyball world, and it was also the first gold medal in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour won by a British team.Following Cortegaça we also achieved a bronze medal on the same tour in Nijmegen. These were our first medals since 2019 after we scored our first bronze medal in the series. After this we looked forward to the season that 2020 would have in store for us, unfortunately of course, this was ill-fated and we weren’t able to compete at all, but e poured all of our efforts into training so we would be ready to restart in 2021. And I am happy we did this as it allowed us to excel throughout the 2021 season and manage to achieve our first gold medal!
My Greatest Challenge
My greatest challenge was definitely 2020 as a whole. All of the uncertainty surrounding when sport would return, how it would return, and whether it be with or without spectators was quite stressful.However, the most difficult part of each and every lockdown was the inability to use training facilities in order to train properly. Although I missed competing, this was more difficult as it meant that I needed to find ways to train at home without the usual equipment.
Like everyone, I took my one walk a day and used it to its fullest, but I had to find new ways to train at home in order to remain on top of my fitness ready for whenever our next competition would be.
Thankfully, all of this training paid off as the 2021 season proved to not only be my brother and I’s best season yet, but the highest achieving season for any British Volleyball team as we achieved a gold medal in Cortegaça and a bronze in Nijmegen.