Hutcheson Sand and Mixes has been instrumental in providing top-quality sand for the new Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Grounds, the first stadium of its kind in China.

The venue consists of a 12,000-seat stadium for the main competitions, two warm-up arenas and six practice arenas. The courts contain a total of 17,000 tons of sand, of which 10,000 tons were used to fill the main stadium with the rest used for the practice and warm-up courts.

The responsibility of ensuring the quality of the sand fell on the shoulders of Todd Knapton, the vice-president of business development for Hutcheson Sand and Mixes. This will be the third Olympics for the Huntsville company, having serviced the beach volleyball venues for the Sydney games in 2000 and in Athens three years ago.

“We are the official sand consultants for the FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) and are currently in a 10-year agreement with the federation. We are obligated to test the material for all their events and venues,“ he explained.

The company first became involved with the 2008 Olympics about one year ago. Knapton said that the test samples the Beijing committee was sending to him were not meeting FIVB specifications.

“It was too coarse. They did not have an adequate sand source they could find there. So we began sourcing out sand in mainland China,” he said.

After about a week of searching, Knapton was able to locate a quarry in the Hainan Province some 1,800 miles south of Beijing.

“We entered into an agreement with the owner and we started producing the material there, all 17,000 tons. But even this sand didn’t meet specifications, so we had to mix two brands of sand together to come up with something we could use.”

Knapton found another sand source at the same quarry that he used to mix the two brands together and make a more-than-adequate source for the venue. It took more than a month to create enough of the ‘recipe’ as he calls it, for the Olympics.

“It is now 100 per cent. It meets all the criteria hands down, as far as playability, esthetics and drainage. I can say that this is some of the best sand the world will ever see.”

Two types of Hainan sand were chosen for the Olympic beach volleyball venue: light yellow sand and an off-white sand at a six-to-four ratio, respectively. The sand has been cleaned, separated and undergone additional processes to select the final grains to be used in Olympic competition.

Knapton’s involvement with the stadium didn’t end with the creation of the sand. He was instrumental in changing some of the venue’s designs to accommodate the playing surface.

“Once the stadium was finished, we began looking at the drainage system and how the stone was applied so the sand doesn’t block the drainage.”

If Knapton had any concerns about working with a Communist government in putting together the Olympic event, he was pleasantly surprised with the reception.

“They were awesome. They were diligent, great business partners to work with. They were slow. They are so behind with their technology and the way they do things. But they were great to work with,” he said.

Knapton got the opportunity to see firsthand how lacking in technology the Olympics workers were when it came time to put the sand into the stadium. The workers had to use a conveyor belt and crude wheelbarrows to spread the material as they did not have the use of bobcat-style frontend loaders, which could have made the job go faster and more efficiently.

The stadium got its first workout in late August with the The ‘Good Luck Beijing’ 2007 FIVB Beach Volleyball Women’s Challenger event. According to all reports, the sand was well-received by the athletes.  

“I just received a phone call from Angelo Squeo (FIVB beach volleyball director) and he said the test events went flawlessly.”

Knapton is expected to be in Switzerland in October to speak to officials of all the federations represented at the 2008 Olympics. “We will address what needs to be done before the Olympics and discuss all the pros and cons.”

He will make at least one more trip to Beijing prior to the start of the Olympics to ensure that everything is ready for when the beach volleyball competition begins Aug. 9.