Bangkok, Thailand, June 21, 2024 – Top seeds China will battle it out with Iran and Australia set up clash with Indonesia in the highly-anticipated men’s semifinals, while the women’s encounters see Japan go up against Thailand and hosts China challenge New Zealand in the 2024 AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Finals at Ningbo Banbianshan Beach Volleyball Center in Ningbo, Xiangshan, China.
The topflight three-day competition serves as the last Asian qualification which will qualify one team (National Federation) apiece in each gender to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In the men’s knock-out quarterfinals on Friday, top seeds China beat Oman 2-0. Veterans Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin, who claimed debut FIVB World Tour one-star event in Anapa, Russia in 2018 and clinched gold medal at 2022 AVC Beach Tour Bandar Abbas Open in Iran, gave the host side a 1-0 advantage after 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) win against Haitham Alshereiqi/Ahmed Alhousni. Fellow countrymen Wang Yanwei/Li Jie struggled to beat Hood Al Jalaboubi/Mazin Alhashmi in hard-fought two-setter 21-19, 30-28 to hand China the convincing 2-0 win.
China will next battle it out with Iran, which pulled off another 2-0 win against Japan, in the Saturday’s semifinals.
Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajani drew the first blood for Iran following their dramatic 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 15-9) win against Takumi Takahashi/Jumpei Ikeda, while Abolhamed Mirzzali/Sina Shoukati Shekarsaraei struggled to beat Dylan Hiroki Kurokawa/Kosuke Fukushima 2-1 (23-21, 21-18) for the Iran’s eventual 2-0 win.
Australia also made their mark in the quarterfinals to send Qatar packing 2-0, with Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carraher, who captured gold at the inaugural Mollymook Australian Beach Volleyball Tour in 2022, brushing off Abdallah Ibrahim Nassim/Ihab Zaki Mohamed 2-0 (21-14, 21-8) and Jack Pearse/Paul Burnett, who won first Beach Pro tour Futures event together last November in Geelong and took the 23th Samila Open in Songkhla, Thailand this year, demolishing Assam Ahmed Mahmoud/Saifeddine Binaziz Elmajid 2-0 (21-11, 21-16).
In the semifinal clash on Saturday, Australia will face Indonesia, which narrowly beat New Zealand 2-1. Bintang Akbar/Sofyan Rachman Efendi came from behind to beat Thomas Reid/John McManaway 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-9) for the Indonesia’s 1-0 lead. However, Bradley Fuller/Ben O’Dea gave New Zealand 1-1 after managing a 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) shutout of Yosi Firnanda/Danangsyah Pribadi.
In the Golden Match to…
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