ROME, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Italian beach volleyballer Daniele Lupo described that his training experience during the COVID-19 pandemic had made him feel gutted, the 28-year-old told Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Due to the lockdown in the Peninsula, Lupo was left to train at an indoor beach training facility in Rome despite a 50-meter distance between the beach and his house.

"It's my home. Me without sand is like a fish without water. I cannot survive. I look at it from my window and think how absurd it is to not be able to go over there and play with my family as I always have done," he said.

However, Lupo disclosed that he had never trained so hard from the middle of March onward.

"In training I do exercises to control the ball, spiking, technique without the ball, making sure everything is precise. Everything that my experience and imagination can conjure up. I cannot waste this opportunity," he recalled.

Lupo and his parter Paolo Nicolai have already qualified for Tokyo 2020 by winning the FIVB Tokyo Beach Volleyball Qualification tournament at Golden Beach in Haiyang, China in last September. Now they are waiting for their third Olympic trip to Tokyo 2020, which was pushed back by 12 months.

"For now, we are observing how the situation changes," Lupo said. "We are taking stock day by day, and so will continue that way.

"I hope that we can start playing in the middle of July. I hope that day arrives soon. What a beautiful sensation it will be. I have missed it so much during quarantine." Enditem

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