China topped the podium in the AVC Continental Beach Volleyball Cup
The Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) organised Asian Continental Beach Volleyball Cup in Haiku, China. The double-gender event lasted for two days from October 19-20, 2010. The Pool A teams from China, Hong Kong and Korea embarked on the podium and displayed incredible show. The Asian Continental Beach Volleyball served as the qualification round for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Since the FIVB has introduced new system of qualification for Olympic Games that countries rather than individual teams, can achieve berths in 2012 event. The Continental Beach Volleyball Cup and Beach Volleyball World Cup will enable countries to capture slots in Olympic Games. The Continental Cup in China was the Sub-Zonal Tournament of Eastern Asia.
Following the same pattern the Pool B of the AVC Continental Beach Volleyball Cup will be held at the end of this year. The city of Gaoxiong in Chinese Taipei will host the event from 24-26 December, while Japan and Macau will attend the tournament as guest.
In the men’s division, China was represented by two teams of Linyin Xu/Wu Penggen and Gao Peng/Li Jian. The home-players outshined and dominated the whole scene with an outstanding performance. The pair of Xu/Wu played three matches on day-one and clean swept the opponents.
China 1 vs. Korea 1 (21-6 and 21-7)
The home-side was challenged by Korean pair of Kwon/AN in the first match. China’s duo was equipped with all necessary tools to win the match. They opened the first set with good serves and produced unstoppable spikes. The Korean pair couldn’t stand the heavy strike of Chinese hitters and lost the first set with a devastating score of 6-21. The pumped-up Chinese-side continued with success in the second set and kept on hitting with same velocity and power. They restricted their opponents to a low score and didn’t allow them to come out of blues. China earned quick points and locked second-set victory at 21-7. Korean suffered the loss of first match, while China enjoyed the early victory.
China 1 vs. Korea 2
On the same day, China’s Xu/Wu collided with other Korean pair of Ko Junyong/Lee. The home-players were in great form and got full advantage of local settings. They provided plenty of power to their shots and built strong lead in first set. Koreans lagged behind in scores’ run on account of ball-reception errors. Moreover, Chinese hotshots kept them behind the attack line and clinched first set by posting 21-6.
The situation remained unchanged for Koreans and they couldn’t find their feet in the game. On the other hand, Chinese pair was remarkably consistent in hitting shooting balls in opponents’ court. They secured the second set with the help 21-8 in the 23rd minute of the game. China bagged another victory in Continental Beach Volleyball Cup.
China 1 vs. Hong Kong
Xu and Wu also launched their authority in third match of the day. They saw Wong/Kwok from Hong Kong on the other side of the net. Chinese pair had great rhythm and tone, which couldn’t be disturbed the Wong/Kwok. The home-side ousted them with a score of 21-11 and 21-11 in consecutive sets and declared match victory. The Chinese pair of Xu and Wu finished the first day of the tournament with three victories in hand.
Linyin Xu expressed his views at the end of the day, "We are now starting our journey in this interesting tournament and I hope we can reach our final goal at the end by qualifying one team for the London 2012 Olympic Games. We do appreciate the FIVB for the decision to stage the Beach Volleyball World Cup and Continental Cup, which provides us another opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. This is really in line with the Olympic movement, where the principle of universality is displayed."
Tags: