There were no big surprises on the opening day of the Bandar Abbas-hosted Asian Senior Men’s Beach Volleyball Championship in Iran, as strong teams enjoyed flying starts of the continent’s five-day topflight competition with comfortable wins on Monday.
Thai players ruled the roost on the very first day of the championship when their three teams beat them all, with Dunwinit Kaewsai/Intuch Techakijvorakul producing an epic comeback to beat Chinese Wang Yanwei/Zhou Chaowei 16-21, 21-19, 15-13 in hard-fought three-set thriller in Pool B.
The Thai duo will have a rest day on Tuesday before facing an uphill task the following day as they will go up against Qatari stars Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan, current No.4 in the FIVB world ranking, bronze medallists at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and winners at the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia. The Qatari second seeds will play their first match against Chinese Wang/Zhou, fourth place at the last week’s AVC Beach Tour Bandar Abbas Open, on Tuesday.
In Pool G, Thailand’s seventh seeds Surin Jongklang/Banlue Nakprakhong spent only 27 minutes in brushing off Wong Pui Lam/Lam Ki Fung of Hong Kong, China 21-13, 21-10 to next take on Chinese Li Zhuoxin/Xue Tao on Tuesday.
Another Thai pairing, Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato, also got their Bandar Abbas campaign off to a brilliant start following their sensational 21-12, 21-16 win against Kazakhstan’s Nurdos Aldash/Kirill Gurin in Pool F. The Thai duo will next challenge Iranians Aro Mojtaba/Mahdi Mahfouzi, who went down 18-21, 14-21 to Chinese sixth seeds Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin, fresh from winning the AVC Beach Tour Bandar Abbas Open last week, in their opening clash on Monday.
Australians also made their mark on the first day of the top-tier championship. Fourth seeds Izac Carracher/Mark Nicolaidis, gold medallists at the Coolangatta Future Beach Pro Tour at home in April, powered past Hong Kong, China’s Wong Ka Yun/Tse Kin Wang 21-10, 21-14 in 27 minutes in Pool D. The Aussies will next play Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakovlev/Sergey Bogatu, who defeated Omanis Ahmed Alhousni/Haitham Alshereiqi 21-15, 21-15 on Monday.
Australian fifth seeds Zachery Schubert/Thomas Hodges, who had captured three titles to their name this year including the Orlen Beach Volleyball Tour in Kolobrzeg, Poland in August, the AVC Beach Tour Samila Open in Thailand in September and the Matsuyama Beach Volleyball Tour in Japan in October, snatched their first win on…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…