Two RI teams through to main vollyball draw

JAKARTA (JP): Two of five Indonesian teams cruised to the main draw yesterday in the ninth leg of the US$150,000 Men's World Beach Volleyball Championships played on an artificial court at the Senayan tennis complex.

Supriono and Alfinus Oban Seleng defied a shaky start to secure their berth, finishing the qualifying round with a 2-1 win-loss record.

The national duo lost to Australian Victor Anfilloff/Jeremy Richardson 10-15 in their first match. But they then routed teammates Suhardi/Pujiyanto 15-0 and beat Japanese Masafumi Matsunaga/Satoshi Watanabe 15-5.

The national pair of Iwan Sumoyo/Anjas Asmara, gold medalists at the just-completed 14th National Games, also cruised to the main draw although they won only one of their three matches.

Iwan/Anjas went down 3-15 to Italians Riccardo Lione/Davide Sanguanini in their opening match. But they won their second match 15-12 over Japan's Jun Ogawa/Shingo Sakai and then succumbed to Australia's Anfilloff/Richardson 7-15.

Indonesia will have four teams playing in the main draw as Olympians Muchammad Nurmufid/Markoji, ranked 23rd in the world, and world No. 24 Irilkhum Sofana/Agus Salim have already qualified. The world's top 24 teams receive automatic admission to the world championships series.

Each team had to play three matches in the qualifying round.

Kamli, an Indonesian Volleyball Association official, told reporters that the championships were applying a 15-score set format in the qualifying round. But in the final, both teams would have to play two sets to a score of 12.

Executive director of the association Rita Subowo earlier expected that at least one team would qualify for the main draw.

Nurmufid/Markoji aim to increase their world rankings from 24 to at least 17. They had to miss two tournaments in the series before the Jakarta leg because of the National Games.

Olympic silver medalists Mike Dodd and Michael Whitmarsh of the United States and bronze medalists Canadians Mark Heese and John Child head the seeding list in the championships. (yan)