AVC BEACH TOUR BANDAR ABBAS OPEN SET TO KICK OFF IN IRAN ON NOV 7

A strong field is lining up for the AVC Beach Tour “Hamrahe Avval” Bandar Abbas Open between November 7 and 11, 2022 in Bandar Abbas, a port city and capital of Hormozgān Province on the southern coast of Iran, with 21 teams ready to strut their stuff in the men’s only tournament

The five-day meet serves as a warm-up competition of participating teams in their preparation for the “PPTV” 2022 Asian “Hamrahe Avval” Senior Men’s Beach Volleyball Championship at the same competition venues from November 14 to 18, 2022

A total of 21 pairings will be out to prove their competence in the tough test comprising four from the host country, three each rom Australia and China, two apiece from Thailand, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong China and Kazakhstan and one from India. The participating teams have been divided into Pools A, B, C, D and E with three teams each and Pools F, G and H with two teams apiece

Teams will compete in the pool round-robin preliminaries from November 7 to 9, with only top two teams from each pool advancing to the Round of last 16 in the November 9 afternoon. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held on November 10, while the finals (bronze-medal and gold-medal matches) will take place on November 11, the final day of the tournament

The preliminary inquiry was held on November 5, while the Technical Meeting, presided by Technical Delegate Mr Jayaraman Srinivasan from India and Referee Delegate Mr Nader Ansari from Iran, took place the following day at Persian Gulf Hotel in Bandar Abbas, with participating players attending to hear the rules and regulations and detailed information of the competition. Draws and seedings had also been conducted during the meeting

Six matches will be contested on the opening day on November 7, with Qatari fifth seeds Binaziz Elmajid Saifeddine/Mahmoud Essam Ahmed taking on 21st-seeds Wong Ka Yun/Tse Kin Wang from Hong Kong, China in Pool E, 7th seeds Yoshiumi Hasegawa/Masato Kurasaka of Japan playing Australian 10th-seeds Solomon Bushby/James Takken in Pool G and Iranian top seeds Abolhamed Mirzaali/Arash Vakili facing 17th-seeds Naresh Tumpera/Raju Krishnam from India in Pool A

Arash Vakili is a highly-experienced player who partnered Bahman Salemi to compete in many Asian and world-level competitions including the 2019 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in Bandar Torkaman, where they captured the title on home soil

Also competing on the very first day of the tournament are Chinese veterans Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin, bronze medallists in the double-gender 2019 Asian Championships at home in Maoming and silver medallists in the 2020 Asian meet in Udon Thani, Thailand. The third seeds will play 19th-seeds Wong Pui Lam/Lam Ki Fung from Hong Kong, China in Pool C

Thai fourth seeds Surin Jongklang/Banlue Nakprakhong will challenge Iranian 20th-seeds Zargham Mansouri/Habib Naseri in Pool D

Australian second seeds Zachary Schubert/Thomas Hodges, champions at the Orlen Beach Volleyball Tour in Kolobrzeg, Poland, AVC Beach Tour Samila Open in Thailand and Matsuyama Beach Volleyball Tour in Japan, all in 2022, will test their mettle with Iranian 18th-seeds Shokati Shekarsaraei Sina/Abbas Pourasgari in Pool B