Roi Et, Thailand, May 3, 2024 – Promising women’s teams from Thailand and China keep the flags flying high in the 5th Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships at Ban Nong Ya Ma Community School Courts here, with all of them marching into the much-anticipated quarterfinals on Saturday, the penultimate day of the five-day tournament which serves as the qualification for the 2024 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Shangluo, China later this year.
The top five Federations in both men’s and women’s events in Roi Et will directly get through to the main draw of the world meet in Shangluo between August 27 and September 1, with another four Federations being pitted in the qualifying rounds.
The women’s teams battled hard in the round of 16 on another scorching day Friday, hoping to overcome the opponents’ daunting challenges and the energy-sapping heat which saw the sweltering temperatures drop a bit from Thursday but remain uncomfortably high at around 39-40 degree Celsius.
Thailand’s top seeds Varagkhana Sogalee/Somruedee Koedkaew, winners at the last week’s South East Asian (SAVA) U19 Championships at the same competition venue here, proved the unstoppable force in the Thailand’s team lineup. After amazingly producing unbeaten run without dropping a set in the pool play, the local gold-medal hopefuls showcased their prowess to brush off Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Chianing/Chuang Hsintung 2-0 (21-10, 21-12) in comfortable 34 minutes.
In the Saturday’s quarterfinals, Varagkhana/Somruedee will take on Japan’s 13th seeds Mei Mori/Noa Utsugi, the rivals they had already beaten in Pool A. Mori/Utsugi bounced back to stun third seeds Niko Morikawa/Waka Yada 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-5) in the all-Japanese clash in round of 16 on Friday.
Another Thai pair, 14th seeds Inthira Bunpasong/Suchipha Rittila, who picked up silver at the SAVA U19 Championships, pulled off upset 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) win against Kiwi fourth seeds Emma Mason/Kaia Buckley to next go up against Qi Siyu/Lei Yijing in the quarterfinals. The Chinese 16th seeds beat Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Ryukhova/Gayana Galash 2-0 (21-10, 25-23) in Friday’s round of 16.
Thailand’s Piyathida Onlaoo/Orathai Sembut also advanced to the quarterfinals following their magnificent 2-0 (21-10, 21-12) demolition of Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Chiungying/Wei Yenlin on Friday. The Thai 21st seeds will next challenge Chinese Wang Jiaying/Zhang Jiabei, who in the other round of 16 encounter…
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