Roi Et, Thailand, May 2, 2024 – As northeastern part of Thailand and Roi Et in particular is currently sweltering under scorching temperatures, the unrelenting heat was likely to affect the players’ performances which saw strong teams start to underperform on Day 2 of the 5th Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships at Ban Nong Ya Ma Community School here.
Temperatures in this northeastern province still soared to record highs up to 41 degrees Celsius on Thursday. However, the searing sun could not dampen the enthusiasm of all participating teams jumping on the hot sand for the tough contest.
Hosts Thailand enjoyed mixed fortunes on Thursday, with all men’s teams suffering setbacks to go down to their opponents in respective pools and all women’s pairs pulling off dramatic wins. Powerhouses such as Australia, China, Iran and Japan also had a mix of skills and lucks, with one team winning and another one losing.
In the men’s event, Thailand’s top seeds Big Manyahong/Aphichat Thonghin suffered their first loss on Thursday, going down in nail-biting 1-2 (21-16, 22-24, 14-16) to Lebanon’s 17th seeds Hadi El Chabib/Jad Abi Karam in Pool A.
Another Thai pairing, 18th seeds Rueangrit Wiromrat/Suranath Ratanapolsaen, fresh from winning the Southeast Asian (SAVA) U19 Championships at the same competition venue here, found Australia’s second seeds Kilian Donovan/Jett Rocker-Graham too strong to go down in thrilling three-setter 15-21, 21-18, 9-15 in Pool B.
In Pool C, Thailand’s Supanai Uthaijaeng/Tanawat Wansungnoen, earlier beaten by Iranian third seeds Amir Ali Ghalehnovi/Kashani Habib Akbarzadeh 0-2 in their first match, lost two in a row on Thursday. The Thai 30th seeds bowed out after sustaining an injury in a match against Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Long/Danh Chanh Sa May, silver medallists at the SAVA U19 Championships.
The other Pool C encounter saw Australians Finley Bennett/Adam Fejes succumb to their first loss to Iranians Ghalehnovi/Akbarzadeh, going down 1-2 (14-21, 21-16, 15-17) in exhausting 57 minutes. However, in their third match against Supanai/Tanawat on Friday, the Aussies are quite certain of emerging triumphant without sweating as the injury-hit Thais had already pulled out of the competition.
Meanwhile, China’s fourth seeds Song Jinyang/Sun Zhihao made it two in succession following their 2-0 (21-11, 21-18) demolition of Iran’s Mohammad Rasool Bastegani/Kiarash Bagheri in Pool D, but compatriots and 21st seeds Liu Yuan/Xu Mingyue lost 1-2 (21-11, 19-21, 14-16) to Japan’s fifth seeds Kiichi Inagaki/Masato Yamashita in Pool E.
In Pool F, Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Mastikhin/Nurboldy Kulboldyyev also won two on the trot on Thursday when the sixth seeds powered past Japan’s Yusei Kawamura/Taichi Hagio in a totally lopsided battle 21-4, 21-8 in 26 minutes, but teammates Maksat Alisher/Zhassurbek Irismatov could not make their mark in a tough clash against Nathan Davies/Liam Smith to succumb to 0-2 (18-21, 11-21) letdown to the Kiwi eight seeds, who have yet lost a single set after two days.
Another Kiwi pair, 23rd seeds Davi Pacheco/Thomas Vesty, remain unbeaten without dropping a set in Pool G as they trounced Indonesia’s Ramli Wijaksana/Rafly Andhika Rizky Ramadhan 2-0 (21-14, 21-17).
The host teams ruled the day with a clean sweep in the women’s event on Thursday, with top seeds Varagkhana Sogalee/Somruedee Koedkaew, who captured gold medal at the last week’s SAVA U19 Championships, sending Australian 12th seeds Lara Maric/Mireille Smith packing 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) in Pool A.
The undefeated Thais will next take on Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Chianing/Chuang Hsintung in the Friday’s round of 16.
Another Thai duo, 14th seeds Inthira Bunpasong/Suchipha Rittila, silver medallists at the SAVA U19 Championships, stunned Australian second seeds Jasmine Rayner/Cameron Zajer 1-2 (21-12, 19-21, 15-12) in Pool B.
The Aussies made amends in their afternoon match against Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Chianing/Chuang Hsintung to beat the 11th seeds 2-0 (21-17, 21-15). Rayner/Zajer will battle it out with Kazakhstan’s Dariya Tlevlessova/Mariya Peressetskaya in round of 16 on Friday.
In Pool D, Thailand’s Piyathida Onlaoo/Orathai Sembut brushed off Vietnam’s Huynh Diem Cat Linh/Thach Thi Phuc 2-0 (21-10, 21-8) in 31 minutes. The Thai tandem later pulled off a stunning 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 15-9) win against Chinese 16th seeds Lei Yijing/Qi Siyu.
Kazakhs Tlevlessova/Peressetskaya won three matches in a row in Pool F. After a 2-0 triumph over Malaysians Goh Yuheng Cadence/Lim Jingqian the previous day, the Kazakh sixth seeds remained in brilliant form on Thursday, outperforming Hong Kong China’s Liang Sylvia Siyang/Fong Heiching 2-0 (21-7, 21-7) in the morning and stunning China’s seventh seeds Wang Jiaying/Zhang Jiabei 2-1 (21-19, 13-21, 15-12) in the afternoon.
With only top two teams from each pool (Pools A-F) in the women’s event through to the Friday’s round of 16, four more teams will make the cut for that round. Thus, points ratio of the teams finishing third place in each pool were taken into consideration to seek the aforementioned four teams.
Malaysians Goh Yuheng Cadence/Lim Jingqian from Pool F (0.9844), Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Chiungying/Wei Yenlin from Pool E (0.9444), Kiwis Emma Mason/Kaia Buckley from Pool D (0.8730) and another Chinese Taipei’s pairing, Hsu Chianing/Chuang Hsintung, from Pool B (0.8095) all finished third places in their pools with highest points ratio respectively earned and as a result, became the qualified four teams to advance to round of 16 on Friday.
As the men’s teams continue their pool play on Friday, the women’s teams will battle it out in round of 16, with winning teams entering the quarterfinals on Saturday. The men’s round of 16 and quarterfinals will also take place on Saturday.
RESULTS
MEN
WOMEN
POOLS
MEN
WOMEN
MATCH SCHEDULE
MEN
WOMEN
WOMEN’S DRAW
FINAL RANKING
WOMEN
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