Bye, bye Brits

Great Britain’s Shauna Mullin, left, and Zara Dampney go for a ball during a beach volleyball match against Italy at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 31, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

The men’s and women’s beach volleyball hosts from Britain are out.

Steven Grotowski and partner John Garcia-Thompson went winless in their three pool-play matches without even winning a set. The women’s pair of Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney beat Canada before being eliminated in the lucky-loser round by Austria on Thursday night.

Still, the athletes know they’ve done wonders for their sport in London and beyond.

“It’s great the reception the sport has had in the UK and how much people love it,” Mullin said. “We’ll look back at it and see how much we’ve done for beach volleyball in the UK.”

Dampney believes there’s now enough interest to host regular international volleyball events.

“I think the British public would love to have a stop on the world tour here every year,” Dampney said. “The Olympics is like a springboard for bigger and better things.”