AYG Beach Volleyball: Chinese girls foil Indonesians’ double bronze attempt

Story by Chin Chi Hua/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Siloso Beach, Sentosa, Sunday, July 5, 2009 – Indonesia’s brave attempt for a double bronze in the Asian Youth Games (AYG) beach volleyball competition has been snubbed by China, as the lanky Chinese volleyball girls have taken the bronze medal in straight games.

Chen Chunxia and Lu Yuanyuan of China unleashed a brilliant game to deny Indonesia’s cheery duo of Yuliana Dhita and Evlina Dhanis the chance to share the bronze medal joy with their male compatriots.

The first game was an easy one for the Chinese when Chunxia and Yuanyuan proved to be too hot for Yuliana and Evlina to handle as they were silenced 7-21.

But the Indonesians were not willing to give away the bronze medal easily as they went all out in the second set to show that it was far from a one-sided affair.

Barely anything separated the two pairs as they matched up point to point with strong spikes and excellent returns taking center stage.

Midway through the second set, Yuanyuan from China fell face down on the sand as she attempted to save the ball. With what appeared to be a hard fall, she was unsettled and made several mistakes thereafter as the Indonesians began to weather points from them.

Several short breaks were called but the resilient Yuanyuan pressed on for the bronze, as the towering Chinese figures continued to overwhelmed the Indonesians in the exhilarating second set and eventually took the match and the bronze in a close score of 21-18.

Speaking in fluent Mandarin, Chunxia expressed her delight after the victory, “We are really excited and happy! We just played accordingly to our own strategy and use them like what we learnt during our trainings.”

Nonetheless, she also admitted that it was a close game, especially in the second set where the Indonesians closed up on them.

“Our opponents changed their strategies but we did not follow up quick enough,” Chunxia explained.

Yuliana and Evlina, on the other hand, were visibly disappointed with the defeat as they will now head home empty-handed after working hard for the week.

“We only trained with each other for 2 months, but I know that it would have been better if we trained longer,” said Yuliana in dismay.