An English team has been defeated in a volleyball competition ahead of an international volleyball competition coming to London next month.

The two-day Olympic volleyball qualification tournament coming to London will be held in Waltham Forest over the weekend of May 25 to 26.

The venue will be the Sports Centre at 1 Pavilion Walk in Leyton.

The Leyton site will be one of eight hosts across Europe during May and June to hold a qualifying tournament this year.

Crowds are expected to flock to watch the games.

Twins Javier and Joaquin Bello were due to compete at the Swedish World Tour event at the weekend, until Joaquin was injured and was advised not to play.

Instead, Javier Bello played with Chris Gregory, but the pair were knocked out in a three set encounter by Olympian and World Championship silver medallist Jonathan Erdmann.

During, an early season one star event on the European calendar in Gothenburg over the weekend, April 20 and 21, the scratch partnership won the first set comfortably but were later defeated.

The Bello twins had been booked to attend Kuala Lumpur next week, but decided not to attend in order to avoid worsening Joaquin's injury.

Javier said: "We feel confident that our plan should allow us to play our best beach volleyball in a month’s time."

Both Mr Gregory and Mr Bello will be return to their regular partners at the Feel Good Too centre in Leyton on May 25 and 26 in the men’s event at the European federation's team event, the Continental Cup when they compete against Switzerland, Armenia and Bulgaria.

The England teams selected will be Joaquin and Javier Bello and Chris Gregory and Issa Baltrane.

There will also be a women's tournament featuring England, France, Belarus and Northern Ireland where Vicky Palmer and Jess Grimson, and Ellie Austin and Anaya Evans have been chosen as the England teams.