Australia ‘B’ wins second stage

Asian Beach Volleyball Tour:

Bernard Perera in Patthalung Loma, Thailand

The second stage of the Asian Beach Volleyball Tour was completed yesterday with Australia ‘B’ team winning, beating the Asian Champs and the Khanom winners Indonesia after a tough engagement two sets to one (19-21, 21-16, 15-13).

The final game began with Indonesia as favourites and gained the initiative winning the first set 21-19 to take the much needed lead though the Aussies posed a big challenge.

The Indonesian pair A. Andy and D. Koko were in full control of this set with Aussies B. Samuel and M. Christopher making a valiant attempt to grab the set in their favour.

The Second set saw the tough Aussies use all their expertise to overcome the Indonesian pair and also to go for the final set on equal terms 1-1. This set got off to a start with Aussies taking the upper hand and making headway towards a comfortable victory.

Indonesians fought gallantly at this point to come to equalize at 7 all due to few errors made by the Aussies. Once again the Aussies went ahead and moved smoothly till the end of the set 15-13 to win the match at Patthalung Loma Trophy.

In the Women’s category it was China’s duo Yue Yuan and Zhang Den who stole the limelight when they downed the reigning Asian Champs S. Jarunee and T. Usa of Thailand to go away with the Trophy. The Chinese did it in style winning the match in straight sets 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).

Chinese ‘B’ team beating Thailand ‘A’ won the game played for the third place in the men’s category in two sets.

Thai men defeated Australian men in the third place play off two sets to nil.

Today the teams will travel around 200kms to Songkhla district for the third part of the Asian Beach Volleyball Tour scheduled to commence tomorrow at the B.P. Samila Beach. Seventeen countries will be seen in action here with the addition of a team from Iran.