AYG Beach Volleyball: Indonesia boys spike down bronze medal after straight sets win over Yemen

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

Siloso Beach, Sentosa, Sunday, July 5, 2009 – The Indonesian pair of Gede Eka Agustiawan and Ade Chandra Rachmawan spiked down the first Asian Youth Games (AYG) medal for their country in the boys’ beach volleyball bronze medal play-off against Yemen.

The Yemeni duo of Ashraf Saeed and Mohammed Salem Haidarah were beaten in straight sets by the Indonesians. Both games were hard fought with Indonesia winning with scores of 21-16 and 21-17.

Both teams were almost on par in terms of skills and techniques, but Indonesia had the edge as they had a greater variety of attacking play, making them more unpredictable to their opponents. Agus and Chandra were also quicker both mentally and physically as they focused on a podium finish, but the Yemen pair did not let up as they took the fight to the Indonesians.

The tension heightened in the second set as the Yemeni pair had to win in order to keep alive their quest for the bronze medal. But Indonesia continued to put in a spectacular performance, which made it difficult for Ashraf and Mohammed to make up ground, and held an 18-15 lead late in the game.

Although Yemen called for a time-out as the Indonesian lead widened to 4, their fate was sealed when they their spike went out of bounds to give match point to Indonesia. The latter promptly closed out the set 21-17 to clinch the bronze.

The Yemeni players may have had a height advantage over their opponents, but they were short of the experience the Indonesia pair possessed. Yemen’s coach, Sami Abdulhak, revealed, “They (the Yemeni players) have trained for about six months for the Games, but the boys only played volleyball indoors, not really beach volleyball.”

“They tried their best, but there was not enough concentration,” Abdulhak added.

As the Indonesians celebrated their bronze medal, Agus excitedly voiced his support for Thailand to win the gold medal later, as the Thais are up against Kazakhstan in the afternoon final.

Chrandra also said, “Our defence was better and (our) blocking was good (enough) to beat Yemen.”

One word summed up their emotions for winning the match, and that is “Bagus!”

[TABLE=446]