Three women’s home teams marched into the semifinals of the 2023 Asian U21 Beach Volleyball Championships at Ban Nong Ya Ma Community School beach volleyball sites in Roi Et, as Australians Lucas Josefsen/Ben Hood and Kazakhs Ivailo Todorov/Klim Ryukhov set up eagerly-anticipated men’s final showdown on Sunday.
The four-day championships, which serve as the Asian qualification for the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships due to be held later this year at the same competition venue here in Roi Et, Thailand from November 7 to 12, reached fever pitch on Saturday, with qualified women’s teams strutting their stuff in the quarterfinals and the men’s sides contesting quarterfinals and semifinals.
In the women’s event, Thailand’s top seeds Patcharaporn Seehawong/Jidapa Bunongkhun, who went down 1-2 in the previous match against by Malaysians Ahmad Nizar Farwizah Aina/Nur Auni Maisarah Shamsulrizal, regained the lost pride on Saturday as they opened up the day with sensational 2-0 (21-7, 21-19) win against Kazakhstan’s Laura Kabulbekova/Nadezhda Ivanchenko in their last Pool A match.
The Thai duo continued their remarkable run in the afternoon session after 2-0 (21-11, 21-10) rout of another Kazakhstan pairing, Angelina Popandopulo/Anastassiya Pushinka, in the quarterfinals.
Patcharaporn and Jidapa will next take on Suchinna Choemphun/Tassanee Chongyoklang, who in the other quarterfinal clash demolished Vietnamese Dinh Thi My Nga/Thach Thi Thuy 21-18, 21-19, in the all-Thais semifinals in the Sunday morning.
Thailand’s Salinda Mungkhon/Samitta Simarongnam, who captured the morning win 21-10, 21-9 in a comfortable 25-minute clash against Malaysians Marsyitah Masrizal/Iskandar Noor Aishah, also made their mark in the afternoon quarterfinals to breeze past Kazakhstan’s Kabulbekova/Ivanchenko in a totally one-sided battle 21-9, 21-9 in just 27 minutes.
In the Sunday’s semifinals, Salinda/Samitta will face off against Australian second seeds Jasmine Fleming/Stefanie Fejes, who struggled to beat Chinese third seeds Yan Xu/Zhou Mingli 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-11) in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, the Australian girls came up with their overwhelming talents to mercilessly crush Singaporeans Ang Hui Ying/Lim Hazel in a completely lopsided affair in their last Pool B encounter 21-8, 21-8 in 25 minutes.
In the men’s competition, Kazakhstan’s fourth seeds Todorov/Ryukhov and Australian second seeds Josefsen/Hood set up the Sunday’s final clash of the two unbeaten teams for the eventual title.
Todorov and Ryukhov had a comeback 2-1 (15-21, 21-18, 15-13) win against Iranian fifth seeds Alizadeh Koyakhi Mahdi/Zamani Amir Reza in the Saturday morning’s quarterfinals.
The Kazakh pairing still had another daunting match in the afternoon semifinal clash against Abi Karam Omar/ElChabib Hadi when they survived a huge scare from the Lebanese duo to finally capture a hard-fought 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-13) win.
Australians Josefsen and Hood powered past Iranians Ali Ghorbanpasandi/Naseri Habib 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) in the quarterfinals and remained on course following their comeback 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-8) victory against Chinese Xu Zongqi/Zhou Yongji in the afternoon semifinals.
Sunday, the final day of the double-gender event, will see the qualified women’s teams contesting their semifinals in the morning session, while the third-place playoff clash and the gold-medal match will be held later in the afternoon.
The men’s third-place playoff encounter and the gold-medal match will take place in the afternoon, followed by the awards presentation and the closing ceremony.
MEN
MATCH RESULTS
FINAL RANKING
WOMEN
MATCH RESULTS
POOL RANKING
FINAL RANKING
MATCH SCHEDULE
MEN
WOMEN
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