OLYMPIANS, World Tour players and former winners will be among those challenging for top volleyball honours at the 32nd RAF Careers Weymouth Beach Classic.

The event, which starts this evening with the traditional Battens Charity tournament, is also set to feature a host of talent from around Dorset over the next few days.

Tomorrow sees a competition aimed at the development of South West England’s best up and coming players take place (2pm start, final around 8pm) before the big guns show their skills on Saturday and Sunday.

The main event, part of the ITSU England Tour, runs across the weekend with action starting on the nine courts from 9am on Saturday and the men’s and women’s final from 3pm on Sunday.

There was one disappointment for the organisers this week when the British team of Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf had to withdraw because of the European Championships in Austria.

The pair had hoped to compete in both events but their first round match in the Euros was brought forward to next Tuesday, meaning that playing the two tournaments became impossible.

However, the standard of play in the men’s competition should still be very high.

The likes of four-time winner Robin Miedzybrodski, Australian Olympian Aiden Tutton, New Zealand World Tour player Kirk Pitman, last year’s winner Taylor Wilson, ITSU Tour leaders Mark Baechli and Chris Datler, and Weymouth player Ryan Stout are all involved.

In the women’s event, the star attractions will be Shauna Miedzybrodski and Zara Pitman who played for Great Britain at the London Olympics – this is one of only a few events they have played together since London 2012.

However, they won’t have it all their own way and current England team member Jess Grimson and Vicky Palmer will feel they have a point to prove, while the same goes for Scottish pair Lynne Beattie and Mel Coutts.

One of the event’s directors, Pete Bennett, said he would like to “thank RAF Careers for their continued support and the weekend should see some of the highest quality competition ever seen on Weymouth beach”.

The RAF Careers Classic has become a festival of beach volleyball with various competitions at all levels of the sport.