Singapore, September 28, 2017 – Two men’s teams apiece from Indonesia and Thailand topped their pools after the round-robin pool preliminaries on the opening day of the 29th South East Asian (SEA) Beach Volleyball Championships at the Palawan Beach Sentosa here on Thursday.
Indonesian top seeds Candra Rachmawan/Mohamad Ashfiya led Pool A with six points from straight three wins, followed by Singaporeans Pei Jie Poon/Mark Shen and Timor Leste’s Alexandre De Silva Jean Christian/Octaviano Sampaio in second and third positions.
Another Indonesian pairing and third seeds Gilang Ramadhan/Danangsyah Pribadi captured the top spot in Pool C with 4 points from four wins in a row, while Laotians Khampiene Sanyalack/Lid Saykhammoun, Vietnamese Tran Quang Vu/Nguyen Van Nha and Singaporeans Tan Trevis/Yeo Sun Peng finished second, third and fourth places respectively.
Thailand took the pole position in Pool B and Pool D, with second seeds Nuttanon Inkiew/Sedtawat Padsawud leading the former and Adisorn Khaolumtarn/Surin Jongklang claiming the latter.
In the women’s competition, Indonesia came up with good show on the sand with second seeds Dhita Juliana/Putu Utami leading Pool B and third seeds Yokebed Eka/Desi Ratnasari making a clean sweep in Pool C. Both Indonesian pairings registered four points apiece following two match wins against no loss.
Singaporeans Ng Serene/Wei Yu Ong came in second place in Pool B with the similar 4 points from straight two wins as Dhita/Putu, but the Indonesians produced a better set ratio. Yodsaphat Pakham and Pronsuda Kritsana of Thailand and Vatthana Mitta/Phouthuksa Keovixay from Laos came in third and fourth places.
Vietnamese Le Doan Huynh Yen/Truong Duong My Huyen finished second in Pool C, with Singaporeans Sim Kelly/Huang Zihui and Malaysians Chia Chou Hwa/Lee Geok Ting Elaine in third and fourth places.
Pool A was dominated by Thai top seeds Rumpaipruet Numwong/Khanittha Hongpak after bagging six points from straight three wins. Filipinos Rondina Cherry Ann/Pons Bernadeth and Malaysians Lim Ming Yi Winnie/Dawn Lynn’s finished second and third places in Pool A.
Vietnamese Mai Thi Hoa/Tran Thi Cam Thi made a perfect sweep in Pool D with four points from two wins against no loss. Filipinas Orendain Patty Jane/Ceballos Fiola, Singaporeans Eliza Chong/Lee Gladys and Timor Leste’s Alin De Sousa Leticia Febriana/Adilijia Caminha were placed second, third and fourth places in Pool D respectively.
For the first time, Singapore will be hosting the SEA Beach Volleyball Championships. This year sees the most number of teams competing – 30 teams; with 15 women’s and men’s pairs representing eight countries competing for gold.
The tournament matches will be played from September 28 to 30 at the Palawan Beach, Sentosa. Play will start 9am each day on the courts with the semi-finals and finals to be played on Saturday, September 30.
This is part of Volleyball Association of Singapore’s (VAS) efforts to raise the standards of volleyball as well as interest of the sport here.
“We have been training every day for the past two months, especially since we have just competed in the recent FIVB Beach Volleyball Daegu World Tour in July,” said Thailand’s national coach Kamoltip Kulna.
“Singapore is a very good beach volleyball venue, because of its central locality in South East Asia. The conditions in Singapore are quite similar to Thailand, but we will still need to be careful not to make any mistakes.”
“Our Singapore teams have gotten favourable draws during the pool play, so we’re feeling good and very hopeful about getting into the quarter-finals,” said Dean Martin, Head Coach of Singapore’s Beach Volleyball team.
“The players have trained hard for this in the last three months and are eager to do Singapore proud in this competition,” he added.
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