Josefsen/Hood and Fleming/Fejes give Australia a clean sweep of men’s and women’s titles
Australia stamped its domination over the 2023 Asian U21 Beach Volleyball Championships, with Lucas Josefsen/Ben Hood capturing the men’s title and Jasmine Fleming/Stefanie Fejes being crowned women’s champions after the Sunday’s finals at Ban Nong Ya Ma Community School in Roi Et, Thailand.
For Fejes, it was her second gold medal at this event. In 2021 in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, Fejes teamed up with Alisha Stevens to hand Australia the unprecedented women’s gold medal. At that time, Fleming partnered Jesse Mann to pick up bronze medal.
Fleming also joined force with Georgia Johnson to finish joint 9th at the recent Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championship in Pangtan, China, while Fejes playing with Jana Milutinovic to come in joint 17th there.
On Sunday, the final day of the Asian U21 Championships in Roi Et, three home teams advanced to the morning’s semifinals, but none of them could make it to the eventual victory.
In the first semifinal clash, top seeds Patcharaporn Seehawong and Jidapa Bunongkhun found too strong for 13th seeds Suchinna Choemphun and Tassanee Chongyoklang to storm past the lower-ranked compatriots 21-14, 21-16 in 36 minutes.
Australian second seeds Fleming and Fejes pulled off a comfortable 21-16, 21-17 win against Thailand’s 10th seeds Salinda Mungkhon and Samitta Simarongnam in the second encounter.
Against Thais Patcharaporn/Jidapa in the final clash, the Australian duo fared much better, thanks to the great experience both of them had gained from the high level Asian style volleyball at the recent Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships in China and good acquaintance from competing in the Asian heat.
Fleming and Fejes stunned the Thai gold-medal hopefuls Patcharaporn and Jidapa 21-13, 24-22 in 39 minutes in the highly-anticipated showdown to be crowned the women’s champions, the second gold in Australia’s history.
Earlier, Salinda and Samitta had to be content with bronze medal after powering past Suchinna and Tassanee 21-16, 21-17 in the all-Thais third place playoff match.
Meanwhile, after having great success on the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour early this year and having continued their partnership in recent months, second seeds Josefsen and Hood proved the strongest team in the Asian U21 Championships in Roi Et following 21-15, 21-14 rout of Kazakhstan’s fourth seeds Ivailo Todorov and Klim…
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