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Grice clocks up the miles in Rio bid

Casey Grice is taking part in the WA in the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour at Scarborough. Pic: Michael Wilson/WA News

The Australian Beach Volleyball Tour has hit Scarborough, and local hope Casey Grice has travelled just as far as some of the interstate raiders.

Grice lives and works in Kalgoorlie and travels back and forth for training and competition.

“I probably spend at least 12 hours a week in the car,” he said.

“But it’s been worth the effort.”

In October, Grice teamed up with Mullaloo’s Cole Durant and both agree it has been the right move.

They finished ninth at their first World Tour event together in South Africa in December and are targeting another strong result when they head to China next month.

“We’ve both been Perth players for a long time,” Grice said. “We always had good competitive matches against each other and over time we just thought let’s stop competing against each other and join up instead.

“It’s been really fun and we’re doing well.”

The pair’s ultimate goal is to go to next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Grice hopes to move to Perth at some stage this year as they ramp up preparation for 2016.

They will contest five World Tour events over the next 12 months.

As an all WA team, Grice and Durant are desperate for victory in the final leg of the national tour in Scarborough this weekend after being second in Manly and third in Surfers Paradise.

“It’s bit of added pressure,” Grice said. “We’re really eager to play our best volleyball this weekend.

“We’ve had a great day today. “We’re in a really good place.”

But fellow West Australian Josh Court and his Victorian partner Damien Schumann will provide strong competition, as will Australian top seeds Chris McHugh and Bo Soderberg and New Zealand pair Sam O'Dea and Michael Watson.

Court and Schumann and McHugh and Soderberg will represent Australia at the world championships in the Netherlands in June.

Top seeds Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy will start short-priced favourites to win the women's event, with their biggest challenge likely to come from 2012 London Olympian, Becchara Palmer, and U23 World Champion, Mariafe Artacho del Solar.

The finals will be held on Sunday.