The Commonwealth Games are renowned for some of the biggest sporting nations competing side-by-side with countries that rarely have the opportunity to display themselves on the international stage. But even by those standards, the opening of the beach volleyball was a sight to behold.
Standing before Javier and Joaquin Bello, England’s world No 60 beach volleyball team, were Ampex Isaac and Saaga Malosa from the islands of Tuvalu. The 4,000 spectators encircling them were equivalent to around 35% of the population of Tuvalu, the third-least populous independent country in the world with 11,000 inhabitants. “We’re not used to it,” said Isaac.
