Bangkok, Thailand, January 16, 2015 – Thailand will welcome a large field of beach spikers in April when the country will host three beach volleyball tournaments in three different provinces including the annual Samila-Chang Asian Beach Volleyball Tour at the famous Samila Beach in Songkhla during the Songkran Festival.

To give the Asian beach spikers an opportunity to sharpen their skills as well as to promote tourism in the host cities, Thailand has decided to traditionally organise two beach volleyball tournaments in the South. The 6th Khanom-Chang Asian Beach Volleyball Tour will take place between April 9 and 11 at the Nadan Beach in Khanom, Nakhon Si Thammarat, a distance of around 730 kilometres from Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand.

At the previous edition, a total of 56 teams from more than 20 countries including 22 women’s teams participated in the Khanom-Chang Asian Tour. Vanuatu and Qatar shared the honours, with the former taking the women’s crown and the latter the men’s title. At the end of the Khanom meet, all participants will leave for Songkhla province, with an approximate 230 kilometres away, to take part in the 16th Samila-Chang Asian Beach Volleyball Tour, which will be held from April 14 to 16 at the Samila Beach in Songkhla. During this time, all the participating beach spikers will join a parade to celebrate the Songkran Festival (Water Splashing). In the parade around the city, the beach spikers, asked to wear Thai traditional shirts, will enjoy splashing water to one another.

In terms of the last  year’s edition, Tanarattha Udomchavee and Varapatsorn Radarong made the host country proud by capturing the Samila Asian Beach Tour title, while Iran stole the limelight to win the men’s crown. With the Asian Zone qualification matches for the next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games due to take place later this year, both Asian Tour events in Thailand are expected to draw much attention from beach spikers from across the region.

Meanwhile, it is a must that the AVC will have to complete its campaign of organising the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Qualification Asian Sub Zonal (second round) Tournament within December 31, 2015 and therefore, Thailand has decided to host the tournament, which will see six countries apiece in the men’s and women’s teams events take part, in Nong Khai, a northeastern province of Thailand with an approximate 615 kilometres from Bangkok, during April 3 and 5.

At the same time, Singapore will host the 28th South East Asian (SEA) Games from June 5 to 16, but the host nation has decided to drop beach volleyball competition out of the gold-medal sporting events. In an effort of making the beach volleyball contest even more thrilling, Thailand has invited the other Asean teams which intend to compete in the SEA Games to take part in the Nong Khai meet.