Asian Beach Volleyball Champ. to kick off in Haikou

Haikou, China, December 21, 2009 ¨C The 2009 Asian Beach Volleyball Championship will kick off on the Holiday Beach at Haikou on December 23 in China''s resort island province of Hainan with the participation of 22 men''s teams and 21 women''s pairs.

The athletes of 15 countries and regions are from Chinese Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Oman, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and hosts China.

All competing teams have arrived in Haikou, with the Japanese being the first, who made the trip here on December 17 to tune up for the weather as well as the sands of Olympic standard, which were transported from Sanya, another seaside resort city on the southern end of the island. Among the top favorites are women''s Olympic bronze winners Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China, while athletes from Japan, Kazakhstan and Thailand are tipped to stage their strong challenges to the hosts during the four-day competition, the event''s technical officer Cao Yu said.

This is the first time for China to host the Asian beach volleyball championship after the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) awarded the annual event to Haikou for the following five years.