Indonesia wins women's beach volleyball c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia won the women's competition in the Jakarta Open Beach Volleyball competition yesterday after defeating a Thai team in the final.

Indonesians Timy Yudhani and Etta Kaize beat Thailand's Kamoltip Kulna and Manoon Paengka 12-5 12-8.

The Indonesian women faced a tough challenge in the first set that lasted half an hour.

Timy and Etta took the lead 4-1 and then tried to subdue their opponents by preventing them from scoring. But the Thais rallied to trail by two points at 4-6.

The Indonesians then moved up a gear and left their rivals behind to take the set 12-5.

Thailand started better in the second set and went 2-0 up. But with strong fighting spirit and cheered on by their own fans at the Senayan court, Timy and Etta powered back and closed out the set in less than 30 minutes.

New Zealand's Nikki Fake and Angela Stojanovic came third after defeating Indonesia's Yayah Rodiah and Agustina Sineri 15-2 in a one-set match.

Indonesia had three men's teams in the final round of the men's competition, which is part of the Asian Tour Beach Volleyball championships.

In the final of the men's events, New Zealand's team of brothers Glenn and Reid Hamilton narrowly beat Indonesia's Irilkun Soffanna and Agus Salim 12-10 12-11.

Indonesia's others teams Anjas Asrmara and Iwan Sumoyo met compatriots Mohammad Nurmufid and Markoji for the third and fourth places.

Anjas and Iwan beat Nurmufid and Markoji 15-11.

The coach of the Indonesian men's and women's teams, Glen Robertson of Australia, said Indonesia's beach volleyball players still needed intensive training and overseas matches to prepare for the SEA Games in October.

Glen said the skills of the Indonesian spikers would be improved through several overseas outings before the SEA Games.

"Indonesia will compete at a number of world beach volleyball series as a test of their skills before the SEA Games," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The Indonesian men's volleyball players are scheduled to play in the world series in Italy from July 16 to July 19, in France from July 21 to July 26 and Australia from July 30 to Aug. 3.

The women, said Robertson, would be sent to Japan and South Korea.

"I hope both the women and men will have obtained good experience from the Jakarta Open," he said. (03)