Chinese Taipei and Poland win World Tour golds

Chinese Taipei’s Nai-Han Kou/Pi Hsin Liu and Poland’s Jedrzej Brozyniak/Piotr Janiak emerged victorious at the Beach Volleyball World Tour one-star event in Langkawi, Malaysia, which was concluded amid a series of events postponements due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

The 37-year-old Kou and the 30-year-old Liu secured their third international gold medal since July 2018 as they had also won World Tour tournaments in Ulsan, Korea, and Satun, Thailand. In the gold medal match, the Asians downed Austrian sisters Dorina and Ronja Klinger in straight sets (23-21, 21-18).

The bronze medal went to Reika Murakami and Kaho Sakaguchi, who won the all-Japanese third-place match by forfeit against compatriots Yurika Sakaguchi and Chiyo Suzuki.

In the men’s tournament, the 31-year-old Brozyniak and Janiak topped the podium for the second time as a team following their triumph in Doha last November.

The Polish dominated the all-European final against Sweden’s Alexander Annerstedt and Martin Johansson, won it in three sets (21-19, 14-21, 15-8) and gave their country its second World Tour gold medal in just three days following Grzegorz Fijakel and Michal Bryl’s victory in Doha on Friday.

The bronze medals went to Chinese Taipei’s Ya-Jen Hsieh and Chin-Ju Wang, who prevailed over Thailand’s Dunwinit Kaewsai and Prathip Sukto in two sets (21-16, 21-18).

The World Tour now faces some weeks of pause as the events in the second half of March and the entire month of April have all been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The next tournaments scheduled are a three-star in Jurmala, Latvia, and a four-star in Itapema, Brazil, from May 6-10.