With support from Volleyball Empowerment, Vanuatu’s Lawac and Toko and Thailand’s Pithak and Poravid win Beach Pro Tour medals
Two teams financially supported by the FIVB’s Volleyball Empowerment programme made the podium at the season’s second Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event, which finished on Sunday in Coolangatta, Australia. Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan and Poravid Taovato took the men’s silver, while Vanuatu’s Majabelle Lawac and Sherysyn Toko claimed bronze on the women’s side.
Thailand’s beach volleyball has benefited from Volleyball Empowerment coaching support for a few years now. For their pairing of 24-year-old Pithak and 21-year-old Poravid, the silver in Australia was the second Beach Pro Tour medal in a row, after they made the podium for the first time in December with gold at the Subic Bay Futures in the Philippines.
Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan and Poravid Taovato (Photo credits: volleyball.org.au / Rogue Gun Photography)
Two more men’s teams from Thailand competed in Coolangatta. Surin Jongklang and Dunwinit Kaewsai finished ninth, while Banlue Nakprakhong and Intuch Techakijvorakul were stopped in the qualifiers finishing twenty first.
Pithank and Poravid, seeded third in the main draw, reached the Coolangatta men’s final undefeated in four matches and put up quite a battle against second-seeded Ha Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin, especially in the second set of the gold medal game, but their Chinese opponents proved stronger on the way to a 2-0 (21-9, 25-23) victory and their third back-to-back Futures gold, after topping the podiums in Sohar, Oman and New Zealand.
“We’re very happy. This has given us motivation and confidence to play on,” Wu told volleyball.org.au.
The men’s bronze went to complete Beach Pro Tour rookies Jordan Hoppe and Charles Siragusa of the United States, who started their Coolangatta campaign, seeded at the very bottom of the qualification bracket, and ended with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-12) comeback win over Germany’s Simon Kulzer and Bennet Poniewaz in the third place match.
“We had to battle a long way to get here, not only to get to Australia, but to go through the qualifiers and to get to the bronze medal match, so we’re pumped up,” Hoppe said.
Vanuatu has been receiving ongoing coach support from Volleyball Empowerment for their women’s beach volleyball programme since 2017. The bronze in Coolangatta was 21-year-old Lawac and 25-year-old Toko’s first Beach Pro Tour podium as a team. However, it was already the third world-level medal for Toko, who took silver at the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-star event in Satun, Thailand and gold at last year’s Futures in Lecce, Italy, both with her former partner Miller Pata.
Having recently experienced two destructive tropical cyclones in Vanuatu, Lawac and Toko’s ability to compete in Australia was a significant achievement in itself. Seeded second in the main draw, they also persevered through a very tough campaign in Coolangatta, with four of their five matches resolved in tie-breaker sets. The only match they lost was their semifinal against champions-to-be Jana Milutinovic and Stefanie Fejes of Australia, who were forced to battle back from a set down to a 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-9) victory. In the bronze medal match, the Vanuatuans celebrated a 2-1 (24-22, 16-21, 15-6) win over Canada’s Darby Dunn and Olivia Furlan.
“We want to thank all our supporters, those who came over here to support us and those back home in Vanuatu! We’re very happy and proud of ourselves,” Toko said. “We just passed the cyclone at home to come here, so we’re just so happy we could take part in this competition. After the cyclone, we know our supporters back home in Vanuatu will be so happy for us and we thank them and our sponsors for their support.”
Another duo from Vanuatu, Chantale Leow Willie and Loti Joe, also played in the women’s main draw but did not progress to the round of 12 phase.
The women’s final was an all-Australian affair, in which 21-year-old Milutinovic and 18-year-old Fejes, seeded sixth, produced a 2-0 (22-20, 21-11) upset of top-seeded Georgia Johnson and Jasmine Fleming at their Beach Pro Tour debut as a pair.
“I’m speechless! I’m just feeling pure emotion and it’s pretty amazing,” Milutinovic said. “We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time and I couldn’t be prouder of our team. It’s always tough, but we came out here and gave it our all.”
“Three months ago I moved my whole life up to Brisbane, moving away from my family, and it’s just amazing that I get to pursue my dream and they’re always here to support me,” said Fejes. “I’m so happy! We really fought hard for this and gave it everything we had. It’s a new partnership, but we’re so excited to see where this can go.”
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28 men’s and 28 women’s teams from a total of 11 different countries from three Continental Confederations took part in the tournament.
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