2011 AVC Beach Tour China Zhangjiajie Open tournament - Volleyball Recap
The 2011 Zhangjiajie beach volleyball tournament recently completed its run in China. The campaign, which was supervised by Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), ran from October 1 to 4. A total of 58 athletes, including 11 women’s duos and 18 men’s tandems
from 12 countries joined the action in Zhangjiajie, China. Despite the hot weather, the aspiring beach volleyball players staged wonderful performances and matches saw a good turn-out of fans. The home duos benefited from the familiar conditions and secured
gold in both male and female categories of the competition.
Women’s Division
In the women’s tournament, China’s Huang Ying and Yue Yuan exhibited stellar performance. They made a good a start in the tournament and successfully reserved the final-match slot. The duo had recently grabbed gold medal win at the Changsha Open, which was
played in the month of September. Hence, Ying/Yuan enjoyed their top form and used the confidence of previous victory. They were joined by compatriots Ding Jingjing and Wang Fan in the final showdown of Zhangjiajii Open on Tuesday, October 4.
The influential gold medal affair spanned over three sets and continued for 47 minutes. Ying/Yuan performed better in the opening set and earned a win by posting 21-14 on board. The rival side, Jingjing/ Fan hit back strongly in the following set and gave
some tough competition to Ying/Yuan. The second set was closely contested and it favoured Jingjing and Fan in the end. They levelled the score by winning with a two-point margin at 25-23.
Game entered the third decisive set as the pairing of Ying/Yuan claimed the match by putting an end to the tussle in third set. They scored 16-14 and claimed the match with an overall game-score of 2-1.
Later on the two teams, which couldn’t advance from the semi-finals, came face-to-face in the third position match. It was an all-Thailand bronze medal match as one side of the court was captured by Use and Sannok Jarunee, while Radarong Varapatsorn and
Kulna Kamoltip took their positions on the opposite side. The former proved to better side and marked victory in straight sets 2-0 (21-17, 21-16). Bronze medal affair lasted for 34 minutes.
Men’s section
Following the success of their female players, the men’s duo of Lin Wuqin and Li Jian from China also staged a great performance. They clawed their way to the final fight of the competition and faced off against Zhou Shun and Liu Wei in straight sets of
21-18 and 21-12.
Both Chinese teams had one thing in common and that was the spectators support. Every attack attempt or block was followed by an uproar from the fans in the match. Wugin and Jian claimed the opening set of the match with a margin of 3 points. Shun/Wei lost
momentum in the second set and ended up second in the tournament.
Men’s bronze medal match brought New Zealand brothers Ben and Sam O’Dea in battle with Farrok Parviz and Mohammad Agha. The Kiwi side overwhelmed the opponents in 34 minutes and clinched success with 2-0 (24-22, 21-12) on the board.
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