Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in Chennai from May 17

Asian Beach Volleyball Championship for men and women will be held at the famous Marina Beach here from May 17 to 19.
The tournament, with a budget of Rs 80 lakhs is being sponsored by the leading Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi and Thanthi Television channel.
Addressing a press conference here last night, A J Martin Sudhakar said the event will be the qualifier for the FIVB Beach Volleyball Under-21 World Championships in Umag (Croatia) from June 20 to 23.
He said six teams (3 men and 3 women teams) per Continental Federations of FIVB plus two teams of the host nation would figure in the World Championship next month.

As for the Asian event here, matches would be held in two sessions in two courts under league-cum-knockout format.
In the women section, Australia, Indonesia and Kazakhstan have fielded one team each, Japan has entered two teams and India, being the host, will have three teams in the fray.
In the men's section too, three Indian teams would be seen in action, while Iran, Oman, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Japan have entered two teams each. Australia and Indonesia, considered to be strong contenders, have entered just one team each.