The Tamil Nadu men’s pair of S. Gokul and S. Lokeshwaran overcame a spirited challenge from Haryana’s Sanjay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh 21-13, 20-22, 15-12 to script its second successive win in a Group ‘F’ match of the Velammal-National beach volleyball championship at the Marina beach on Friday.
The defending champions — T. Naresh and M.C.H.R. Krishnam Raju of Andhra Pradesh — defeated Maharashtra 2 (Suraj Dubey & Akshay Phaple) in a Group ‘A’ match.
The young collegiate pair from Tamil Nadu, figuring in its maiden Nationals, relied on deft touches and placements rather than power and strength to surprise their rivals.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, Avadesh Kumar Chaudhary, President, and Ramavatar Singh Jakhar, Secretary, VFI, said the second edition of the Indian Volleyball League will definitely be held in November-December this year.
They added that the camp for the Asian Games will be held in Chennai.
Avadesh and Ramavatar revealed that a physiotherapist will travel with the senior India volleyball teams from now on.
A VFI official said the World beach volleyball tour will be held in November, most likely in Chennai.
Important results:
Men: VFI (S. Ravinder Reddy (wild card) & Kasi Viswanathan Raju) bt TN 3 (P. Balasubramanian & S. Ramamoorthy) 16-21, 21-16, 15-9; Kerala 1 (Arjun & Mubashir) bt Chhattisgarh 1 (Laxmi Narayan Yadav & Jimmy Chandrakar) 16-21, 26-24, 15-4; VFI (Mohan & Balamani) bt Karnataka 2 (Kaushal & Savan Shetty) 21-13, 21-14.