Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2, 2017 – The cream of Asia’s best young beach volleyball players will meet at the AVC U21 Asian Beach Volleyball Championships which run from March 2-4 with five places per gender up for grabs at the 2017 FIVB World U21 Beach Volleyball Championships.
The U21 World Championships return to the calendar after last year's event in Lucerne, Switzerland and they are due to take place in Nanjing, China from July 11-16.
Before then Asia’s young stars will meet for three days of intense competition at Roi Et in Thailand. In total 42 teams will take part. The 23 men’s teams have been drawn into eight pools, while the 19 women’s teams will start off in six pools before progressing to the elimination rounds.
Japan’s Reika Murakami and Hana Deguchi return to the competition and will be aiming to improve on the silver medals they won at the 2016 edition, but will be pushed hard by Thailand’s Sirinuch Kawfong and Saranya Laesood and Cao Shuting and Wang Jiaxi from China.
Local favourites Marudet Buntem and Jatoopon Saenyoot are the first seeds in the men’s competition, with Chinese pair Liu Chuanyong and Tao ChengAn seeded second.
In 2016 Chinese teams won both golds; Chen Jiali and Li Jiaowei in the women’s and Zhao Chaowei and Yan Tingyuan in the men’s.
