Pairs from Thailand and Japan claim silver and bronze
Credit: FIVB.org
The USA’s Carly Kan and Lexy Denaburg had a fantastic Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut and made it from the qualifiers all the way to the top of the podium at the women’s Seoul Futures last week.
Thailand’s Charanrutwadee Patcharamainaruebhorn and Woranatchayakorn Phirachayakrailert took the silver in Korea, while Japan’s Asami Shiba and Saki Maruyama completed the podium with bronze.
Both 28-year-old Kan and 22-year-old Denaburg appeared at a world-level competition for the first time in their careers. In the only qualification match played in Seoul, the Americans mastered a convincing straight-set win to advance to the 16-team main draw, where they were seeded 15th.
They stayed on the winning track through the rest of the tournament, dropping only a set in the five main draw matches played. Kan and Denaburg were particularly emphatic in the playoffs, with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) quarterfinal win over Japan’s Sayaka Yamada and Takemi Nishibori, a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) semifinal victory over second-seeded Shiba and Murayama, and a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) sweep of the final match against top-seeded Charanrutwadee and Woranatchayakorn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMNGqZsGikQ
In their semifinal match, 24-year-old Charanrutwadee and 22-year-old Woranatchayakorn managed a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-10) victory over seventh-seeded Australians Elizabeth Alchin and Kayla Mears to secure their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a pair. Charanrutwadee had already picked up a 2022 Daegu Futures bronze alongside Rumpaipruet Numwong.
In the bronze medal game, 31-year-old Murayama and 27-year-old Shiba battled back from a set down to take a 2-1 (14-21, 21-12, 15-12) comeback win over the Aussies and celebrate their first Beach Pro Tour podium.
A total of 17 women’s pairs representing Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Singapore, Thailand and the USA competed in the Seoul Futures.
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