AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Championships:
Iranian pairs bow out in knockouts
The AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Championships in Shangluo, China, was an event to forget for Iran after the country’s two pairs suffered knockout-stage defeats in the men’s competition.
Abolhassan Khakizadeh and Amirali Ghalenovi saw their campaign end in the quarterfinals after falling in straight sets (24-22, 21-13) to hosts Wu Jiaxin and Zhou Chaowei on Saturday.
The Iranian duo, which claimed an impressive silver medal at April’s Asian Beach Games, began with a 2-0 victory over Sergey Bogatu and Kirill Gurin in Pool D, avenging their semifinal defeat to the Kazakh pair at the CAVA Championships in July. They then lost to pairs from Australia and Oman but still managed to progress to the round of 16 as runners-up in the group.
The pair then defeated Japan’s Kai Kurokawa and Ryuichi Adachi 2-0 (21-17, 23-21) to advance to the last eight.
Saturday’s setback came after Alireza Aqajani and Abbas Pourasgari, who won the Fans’ Choice award at the inaugural AVC Gala Awards last month, lost to Thailand’s Tipjan Pithak and Muadpha Wachirawit 2-1 (21-17, 20-22, 15-11) in the first knockout round.
Bronze medalists in the 2024 edition, the Iranian pair had beaten Australian and Uzbek duos either side of a 2-0 loss to Wu Jiaxin and Zhou Chaowei to finish second behind the Chinese pair in Pool A.
The event serves as a qualification pathway for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, with the champions in each gender category securing a berth at the sporting extravaganza.