AUSTRALIANS KEEP OLYMPIC BEACH VOLLEYBALL DREAMS ALIVE IN BEIJING

VOLLEYBALL May 10, 201: Australia’s Olympic beach volleyball hopefuls Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchley and Becchara Palmer and Louise Bawden have both qualified through to the last 24 teams for the prestigious 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Beijing Grand Slam.

Palmer and Bawden received an injury walk over against US pair Jennifer Kessey and April Ross to advance while Cook and Hinchley easily accounted for Finland’s Nystrom sisters, Emilia and Ericka in straight sets 21-17, 21-15 – for their second wins in the pool games.
 
Cook and Hinchley took it to defending, two-time Olympic champions Kerri Walsh and Misty-May Treanor from the USA in a hard fought second game yesterday, taking the first set 23-21 before going down 15-21, 10-15.
 
The Australian pairs will move into the first round later today with both teams determined to keep winning and earning valuable rankings points to enhance their Olympic selection chances, Palmer and Bawden ranked 15th and Cook and Hinchley 23rd.
 
Meanwhile the young Australian men’s pair of Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa have dug deep to qualify for the main draw at the same tournament with two come-from-behind wins over Spanish pair Inocencio Lario and Raul Mesa (22-24; 21-18;15-9) and highly regarded Russians Dmitri Barsouk and Konstantin Semenov (25-27; 21-18;16-14).
 
But they have since fallen to main-draw fourth seeds Spanish pair Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera (21-16; 21-16).
 
The rounds continue today and tomorrow with the finals scheduled for Sunday.