AUSTRALIA, CHINA ASSURED OF BACK-TO-BACK MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TITLES IN 2024 ASIAN SENIOR BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 9, 2024

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Santa Rosa, Philippines, November 9, 2024 – Australia and China look set to share the honour on the 2024 Asian Senior Seashore Volleyball Championships as high seeds Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher and third seeds Thomas Potts/Jack Pearse will battle it out in an all-Australian males’s showdown, whereas China’s high seeds Wang Jingzhe/Xia Xinyi will face off towards compatriots and fourth seeds Xue Chen/Zeng Jinjin within the ladies’s gold medal match on Sunday.

As Australia and China are assured of capturing respective males’s and ladies’s titles on this 2024 version at Nuvali Sand Courts, it looks like historical past repeats itself as on the final 12 months’s Fuzhou-hosted Asian Senior Seashore Volleyball Championships in China, Australia claimed the lads’s title, whereas the ladies’s crown went to China.

There, Australians Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert upset compatriots Chris McHugh/Paul Burnett 2-0 within the males’s showdown to reign supreme, whereas Chinese language Xia Xinyi/Xue Chen powered previous Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat/Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee 2-0 within the ultimate conflict to take the ladies’s title.

AUSTRALIA, CHINA ASSURED OF BACK-TO-BACK MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TITLES IN 2024 ASIAN SENIOR BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

On Saturday, the penultimate day of the five-day, double-gender competitors, Wang/Xia pulled off a comeback 2-1 (17-21, 21-8, 15-9) win towards teammates Yan Xu/Zhou Mingli within the ladies’s quarterfinals.

The Chinese language duo remained robust defensively and offensively within the semifinal conflict towards Japan’s Asami Shiba/Saki Maruyama, who demolished Aussies Jasmine Fleming/Elizabeth Alchin 21-16, 21-18 within the quarterfinals.

Regardless of enjoying nicely and having numerous respect for the gallant struggle they put in, the Japanese tandem discovered Chinese language Wang/Xia too robust to go down 17-21, 15-21 in 36 minutes. The Chinese language duo booked their berth within the ultimate.

With nice expertise their key advantages, Wang/Xia may show to be robust title contenders to be reckoned with in Santa Rosa. As Xia competed on the 2020 and 2024 Summer time Olympics and took consecutive three-time Asian Video games gold medals (2014, 2018, 2022), the 27-year-old Wang managed to win gold at 5 of her six appearances on the FIVB Seashore Volleyball World Tour in 2019 together with Wen Shuhui. Wang celebrated her first Seashore Professional Tour gold as she and 23-year-old Mushajiang Aheidan topped the rostrum on the Qingdao 2024 match.

Teammates Xue/Zeng confronted a harder job en path to the Sunday’s showdown. The Chinese language pair superior following a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) rout of Australia’s thirteenth seeds Tara Phillips/Kayla Mears within the quarterfinals.

Nonetheless, they struggled exhausting within the semifinal encounter towards one other Australian duo, second seeds Jana Milutinovic/Stefanie Fejes, who managed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) shutout of Kiwis Shaunna Polley/Olivia MacDonald.

Xue/Zeng took the hard-fought first set 22-20, however the Aussies, consecutive two-time Coolangatta Futures winners and gold medallists on the 2024 Mollymook Futures, stormed again to clinch the second set 21-14. The tie-breaker was hotly-contested as each side poured every thing they needed to win the set and match, however the Chinese language duo fared higher to say the thrilling set 15-13 and a ultimate berth.

As Chinese language Xue, bronze medallist at 2008 Beijing Olympics and world champion in 2013, and the 22-year-old Zeng, gold medallist on the 2023 Leuven Futures in Belgium, will tackle compatriots Wang/Xia within the ladies’s showdown, Australians Milutinovic/Fejes and Japan’s Shiba/Maruyama will struggle it out within the third-place playoff to vie for bronze medal.

In the meantime, Australia’s high seeds and present world No.19 Nicolaidis/Carracher, who claimed the 2024 Mollymook Futures title and 2023 AVC Seashore Tour Penghu Open in Chinese language Taipei to their identify, powered their solution to the lads’s showdown.

Nicolaidis/Carracher beat Joshua Howat/Luke Ryan 21-11, 29-27 in an all-Australian quarterfinal match to go up towards Iranians Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab, who got here from behind to beat compatriots Salemiinjehboroun Bahman/Khakizadeh Abolhassan in hard-fought three-set thriller 20-22, 26-24, 15-13 in exhausting 76 minutes.

Within the semifinals, Nicolaidis/Carracher survived a scare from Pourasgari/Aghajani to beat the Iranian duo in thrilling three-setter 21-13, 17-21, 15-13 in 52 minutes and are because of subsequent battle it out with teammates Potts/Pearse within the Sunday’s do-or-die ultimate.

Potts/Pearse struggled within the quarterfinals. Each on their Asian Championships debut and silver medallists at this 12 months’s AVC Seashore Tour Taoyuan Open in Chinese language Taipei, Potts/Pearse bounced again from the first-set loss to beat Kazakhstan’s qualifiers Dmitriy Yakovlev/Sergey Bogatu in intense three units 17-21, 21-17, 15-12 in 57 minutes within the quarterfinals.

Within the semifinals, Potts/Pearse nonetheless confronted a frightening job towards Wu Jiaxin/Ha Likejiang, who gained many worldwide tournaments together with three consecutive gold medals on the Volleyball World Seashore Professional Tour in 2023 (Sohar, Mount Maunganui and Coolangatta Futures), however the Australians ultimately reached the ultimate after closely-contested 2-0 (23-21, 24-22) victory towards the China’s fifth seeds.

Wu/Ha additionally carried out solidly within the quarterfinals earlier to stun second seeds and defending champions Thomas Hodges/Schubert from Australia 23-21, 21-18.

On Sunday, Nicolaidis/Carracher and Potts/Pearse will face off within the all-Australian ultimate, whereas China’s Wu/Ha will struggle it out with Iranians Pourasgari/Aghajani within the bronze-medal match.

MATCH RESULTS

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