Never mind the Olympics

The third Real Estate Charity Beach Volleyball Tournament, organised by Jones Lang LaSalle, was held as usual at the La Playa Music Bar on the sandy eastern bank of the Vistula, where the city's beautiful Old Town looks down on us from the other side of the river. Certainly the Olympic athletes would have been jealous of the weather, which was (as at last year's event) glorious.?It was attended by around ?500 guests, who came to watch 19 real estate companies battle it out under the scorching sun to win the tournament. The companies that fielded teams were BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Colliers International, Cushman?& Wakefield, DTZ, EC Harris, ECI, Hochtief Development Poland, Jones Lang LaSalle, Knight Frank, MGPA, Millennium Logistic Parks, Panattoni Europe, Polish Properties, Prologis, Savills, Segro, Skanska and Link4. In all, 133 players took part. Blocking, digging, bumping, jumping and thumping their way to victory were Colliers, who triumphed over Polish Properties in the final. Third place went to Cushman & Wakefield.

And then it was party time. As tropical cocktails were served at the after-sports party at the La Playa Music Bar, more money was raised at the auction and raffle that took place, bringing the grand total up to PLN 100,800 - almost?twice the amount raised last year. The funds will be donated to the Friends of Litewska Children's Hospital Foundation,?which collects money for the?medical magnifying glasses used when performing surgery on infants and premature babies, and Jasiek Mela's Beyond ?Horizons foundation, which raises money for new artificial limbs for the disabled. John Duckworth, the managing director for Central and Eastern Europe of?Jones Lang LaSalle, had the honour of presenting the cheques?to the institutions. As the sun set, the dancing continued well into what was one of the most beautiful nights of the year.

The tournament sponsors were Balmain Asset Management, ?La Playa Music Bar, Besuto Sushi Bar, Carrefour, Copy General, Crocs, Go Sport, Holmes Place, Lindt, Medicover, Netia,?Metka Studio, Mielżyński Wine Bar, Play Volley, Prologis,?Radisson Blu, Stewart Title Limited, the Westin Warsaw and Zumba Poland. ?Eurobuild CEE' was the media patron. NN