Australians Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho del Solar finished second place
Roi Et, Thailand, September 17, 2022 – New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley and Alice Zeimann captured their unprecedented Asian title after pulling off stunning win against Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho de Solar in highly-anticipated final showdown of the 2022 Asian Senior Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship at Ban Nong Ya Ma Community School competition venue here on Saturday.
The Polley/Zeimann’s exceptional 21-18, 26-24 win handed New Zealand the first medal in the Asian Senior Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship and the country’s first women’s gold medal in history since the championship inception in Yangjiang in 2000. The topflight championship was held for the first time 22 years ago in the Chinese city in southern Guangdong Province and New Zealanders have yet won a single medal since 2000. Polley and Zeimann made history for New Zealand here in Roi Et.
The New Zealanders had a disappointing outing at the last year’s double-gender Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships in Phuket, Thailand following their fourth-place finish. The FIVB world No.44 also took part in the last week’s inaugural AVC Beach Tour Roi Et Open at the same competition site here, but due to the presence of top teams from China, Japan, Thailand and Australia, expectations could not be that high and the Kiwis finished in joint fifth place.
Polley and Zeimann also ended their campaign in fourth place in this year’s Birmingham-hosted Commonwealth Games, but they had learned from the mistakes and regained their composure. They put in superb form for remarkable unbeaten run in the September 14-17 Asian Championship here.
The Kiwis sprang a surprise as they stunned defending Asian champions Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee/Tarawadee Naraphornrapat from Thailand 2-0 in the Friday’s quarterfinal and after that, stormed on to rout China’s formidable Xia Xinyi/Lin Meimei 2-0 in the semifinals on the same day.
Their final clash against Australians Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar on Saturday was something unpredictable from the very beginning.
Due to their great experience in world-class competitions, the Australian duo were not easy to play with. Clancy and Artacho del Solar had won gold at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge tournament at the Praia da Baia in Espinho, Portugal, their first victory on the 2022 Beach Pro Tour. The superb duo…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…