Thailand and Indonesia to fight it out in final men’s and women’s showdowns
Thailand and Indonesia powered past respective rivals in the Monday’s semifinals to set up final men’s and women’s showdowns of the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Beach Volleyball Tournament at Otres Beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, which serves as the AVC Continental Cup Phase 1 Southeastern Zone.
In the men’s semifinals on Monday, the Thai men struggled to beat Vietnam 2-0 and are due to face off against reigning champions Indonesia in the Tuesday’s showdown. The Indonesians demolished Philippines 2-0 in the other semifinals on Monday.
The women’s semifinal encounters saw Indonesia outplay Vietnam 2-0 to go up against title-holders Thailand in the Tuesday’s final clash. Thailand breezed past Singapore 2-0 in the other semifinal match.
As Thailand and Indonesia set up final men’s and women’s showdowns, Vietnam will challenge Philippines in the men’s third-place playoff clash and Vietnam will also fight it out with Singapore in the women’s bronze-medal match.
In the men’s event on Monday, unbeaten Vietnam, which topped Pool A, mounted a strong challenge against Pool B second place Thailand, but found the Thai outfits a tough nut to crack. Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato, who emerged as the champions at the FIVB Beach Pro Tour Subic Bay Futures in Philippines last December and picked up silver medal at the last month’s AVC Beach Tour 22nd Samila Open on home soil in Songkhla, went down 18-21 in the first set against Nguyen Lam Toi/Quang Vu Tran, but shrugged off their rust just in time to defeat the Vietnamese duo 21-17, 15-6 to hand Thailand a 2-1 victory in the first match.
Vietnam still performed well in the second encounter as Nguyen Thuyen/Van Nha Nguyen stretched the tough match against Surin Jongklang/Dunwinit Kaewsai to three sets but eventually succumbed to the 1-2 (18-21, 21-17, 9-15) loss to the Thai tandem.
Thailand won the match 2-0 to next challenge defending champions Indonesia in the final showdown, which turns out to be a preliminary Pool B rematch. Indonesia had already beaten Thailand 2-1 in the pool play and still hoped high to repeat the similar feat in the Tuesday’s showdown.
Indonesia, spearheaded by Pribadi Danangsyah/Ramadhan Gilang, the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallists on home soil and also bronze medallists at the last month’s AVC Beach Tour 22nd Samila Open in Thailand, took an early 1-0 lead following the…
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