Porty beats Rio any day

Robin, in sunglasses, aims for Olympic glory while competing in events as far afield as Shanghai - and working for Network Rail

Tanned and athletic, six packs on show. It's the glamorous image of a sport that mesmerises spectators and has them drooling for more, even if they have absolutely no idea of what is actually happening. Switch to the other side of the globe and Portobello beach. The six packs are more likely to be of the Tennents Lager variety, the tans a bit streaky, straight from a bottle. If there are bikinis on show then it might be better for all concerned if they weren't.

Of course Porty by the sea isn't quite that bad. After all, it's on those very silvery sands, with Cockenzie Power Station in the distance, the aroma of frying chips wafting across the Promenade and the buzz from the amusement arcade, that Scotland's Olympic beach volleyball hopeful Robin Miedzybrodzki honed his considerable skills - and an enviable six pack.

"Portobello is all right," laughs Robin when quizzed over how the Edinburgh seaside spot could possibly compare with Copacabana, Ipanema and the beautiful people's favourite spot, Los Angeles' Venice Beach in terms of beach volleyball. "If you get a great day down at Portobello Beach, you can't beat it," he grins.

The 25-year-old beach volleyball star is not completely kidding. While it's a giant leap of imagination to compare the Porty seaside with the dazzling vista of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana - generally regarded as his chosen sport's spiritual home - soon Edinburgh's sandy stretch could be credited for helping create one of Britain's first beach volleyball Olympians.

The former Firrhill High pupil is in the frame for what is set to be one of the most popular events at the 2012 London Olympics. Now it's been confirmed that Great Britain will be allowed to enter a men's and women's beach volleyball pairings, the race is on to see which teams will snare the coveted spots. For Robin and partner, Englishman Tom Lord, the stakes couldn't be higher - for not only is there a chance to become Olympians, there's the added bonus of being the first ever British beach vollyball Olympians.

"Beach volleyball will be the big sport at these Olympics," he adds. "It will be played at Horse Guards Parade, so it will attract massive attention. Plus it will be the first time Great Britain has entered a team. So it's really exciting."

Yet getting to the point of being in the running for a coveted spot - there are four men's teams including Robin's all hoping to snare one, possibly two places available - has required all the endurance, patience and determination of a world-class athlete in itself.

Today Robin is still bleary-eyed from taking part in a tournament in Prague. He's just stepped off the sand courts at London Beach Volleyball Club's Shore-ditch training facility but when he's not training or competing, he's trying to hold down his job with Network Rail's graduate training programme as a civil engineer.

UK Sport pulled their funding of the GB men's beach volleyball programme last year - leaving Robin, Tom and their fellow competitors faced with having to fund their own training, travel and competition appearances.

The end result has meant a financial juggling act, with Robin scraping together whatever cash he can from whatever source - including family back at home in Colinton - in a bid to see through his Olympic dream. "The frustrating thing is that it couldn't have come at a worse time. This is the most important time for us and we're in the worst possible situation. Before the cuts we had a full-time coach, flights were taken care of to get us to competitions - none of that's there any more yet here we are in the qualification period."

Not many Olympic hopefuls are likely to be cramming in their training around searching for sponsors and holding down a job. At least Network Rail has turned out to be supportive enough to allow him time off to pursue his sport. Money problems aside - it can cost around 30,000 for a player to take part in the world tour - all Robin has to do now is ensure he and Tom achieve the best possible results in the run-up to the team's selection.

But just getting to this stage is an enormous achievement, considering his first taste of the sport on Portobello's sands just a couple of years ago.

Robin, already a promising footballer and golfer, had been growing bored with those sports when he was inspired by his PE teacher at Firrhill High to try traditional volleyball.

Soon he was playing with Pentland Nuvoc, following it up with spells with the Scottish national team and the national league, then playing with the City of Edinburgh Amateur Volleyball squad.

"A group of us from City of Edinburgh got into beach volleyball," adds Robin. "In summer we'd go down to Portobello beach and play there. I'd spend hours on the beach. Obviously you'd get a few people who would try to steal your ball. There'd be Andy Murray comments - yeah, I know, wrong sport! - but generally people would be OK. When the weather was good, people would show a lot of interest and ask about the game."

When it became clear that London would host the 2012 Olympics, Robin took notice. He headed to Bath University where the British Volleyball Federation had established its national squad and threw himself into top-level training alongside completing his civil engineering degree. Since then, he's played around the world joining the circuit of arguably one of the world's most spectactor-friendly sports.

"It does have this reputation for glamour," laughs Robin - whose own website images show him posing, bare-chested, sunglasses on, with a strategically placed volleyball. "The training is physically hard, you're playing on sand and, yes, there's this culture which is a big part of the game which involves how you look.

"But the schedule is so hectic and there's not a lot of money involved, so the players don't often see the glamour that comes across in photographs of people playing on Copacabana beach."

All that, though, is secondary to July 27 next year, when the Games begin, followed the next day with the beach volleyball tournament. Robin is drawing on the fighting spirit displayed by his grandfather, a Second World War Polish pilot, to ensure it's him and partner Tom on the Horse Guards Parade sand court.

And he hopes that by becoming one of the first British beach volleyball Olympians, he can inspire interest across Scotland in a sport generally seen as something only beautiful people on sun-kissed beaches in exotic climes play . . .

"Beach volleyball is played around the world but not so much here because people don't think the weather is on our side," shrugs Robin. "But it's OK to play golf and football, why not beach volleyball?

"I'm just back from Prague which is nowhere near the sea, but the city has lots of beach volleyball courts. So do lots of countries." Setting up a court on a stretch of beach, he adds, couldn't be easier. "And once there's a permanent court in place, all the players need is a ball and themselves to play."

The tan, the bleached hair and the six pack, while desirable, are all entirely optional . . .