Volleyball, especially beach volleyball, is not a sport commonly associated with Moscow. When one hears the words, one thinks of the hot sun, palm trees and, well, a beach – things linked in the popular consciousness with Southern California or Florida, certainly not northwestern Russia.

Nevertheless, last Sunday, people did come to line the bleachers in Moscow's Troparevo recreational park to watch a championship beach volleyball event, the finals of the five-week LifeStyle Mixed Beach Volley Russian Open 2001.

The event, sponsored, as its name would suggest, by LifeStyle – not that you would know this from reading the Moscow Times coverage – was an attempt to bring a bit of beach culture to the city and help in some small way to alleviate the oppressive tedium of the August doldrums. And, moreover, to give some of Russia's best volleyball players, specialists in a sport that is underappreciated in this country, a chance to prove their mettle and, possibly, walk away with the top prize – $1,500 and a vacation package to everybody's favorite Baltic resort, Estonia (where they will be able to play real beach volleyball on a real beach, no less). Danone, Estonian Air, Nestle, Santal and Vitalinea were co-sponsors of the event.

Eight mixed-doubles teams faced off against each other in the finals. The competitors included participants from World and Europe Championships and veterans of FIVB tours.

The team of Mikhail Kushneryov and Anna Borbora walked away with the championship and the prize. It wasn't a piece of cake for them, however. Their opposition, Dmitry Karasyov and partner Viktoriya Demerchova, put up a good showing of their own, and Kushneryov and Borbora's win was narrow: 21:19, 19:21, 15:11.

This writer has never been particularly fond of heat and glaring sunlight and is much more comfortable in an overcoat than a pair of swimming trunks, but it does provide an appropriate atmosphere for beach volleyball, which is, after all, a celebration of the sun. And the park, with its cheap beverages and shashlyks, as well as the colorful park-goers – perfect for people-watching – and generally laid-back and genial atmosphere made for a great setting for sitting back with a cold beer and enjoying the show.