NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s men’s beach volleyball team won two games against the Indian team in Visakhapatnam, India, Dec. 16 and advanced to the final of the Asian Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament.
Photo credit: Olympic.kz.
On the first day of the competition, Iran won two consecutive victories over Sri Lanka, and Kazakhstan snatched victory from the tournament hosts with a score of 2:0.
The first three rounds of Kazakhstan’s victory had results of 2:0; 21:18 and 21:19; the second round ended up 2:0; 24:22 and 21:17. Nur-Sultan’s team will play 2018 Asian champions Iran in the final, leaving India and Sri Lanka to battle for bronze.
The women’s teams of Kazakhstan, India, Iran and Sri Lanka are also competing in this tournament, with the winner of both the men’s and women’s competitions qualifying for the finals of the Continental Cup, where the eight strongest Asian teams will play for the only ticket to the Olympic Games 2020. The silver medalist of this tournament gets into the semifinals, where eight teams will also play, and the winner of the semifinals will get into the final eight.
Games are held according to the Olympic system. In competition matches, teams need two wins to be declared victor. If a round ends with a score of 1:1, a tie-breaker match is played.
Kazakhstan’s men’s team comprises players of VK Petrel-Almaty Sergey Bogatu, Dmitry Yakovlev, Alexander Dyachenko and Alexei Sidorenko.
Irina Tsimbalova, Bakhytgul Samalikova, Alina Rachenko and Anastasia Ukolova represent Kazakhstan on the women’s team.
Kazakhstan already has 25 licences for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
