COOK AND HINCHLEY ADVANCE TO LAST 16 IN LONDON BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball August 12: Australian pair Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchley have advanced to the elimination rounds of the Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International in London.
 
Four-time Olympian Cook and her Beijing partner Hinchley were one of six teams who remained unbeaten through the first three pool games of the women’s Olympic test event being held through Sunday at the iconic Horse Guards Parade in the heart of central London.

The eighth-seeded Australians will meet 11th seeded Vanuatu pairing Linline Matauatu and Elwin Miller in their round one match later today (4.30pm local time).
 
Victory against the Vanuatu girls would likely set up a quarter-final match with Brazil’s fourth-seeded Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima.
 
Cook and Hinchley took just 36 minutes to wrap up their Pool E sweep, upsetting fifth seeded Canadian pairing Heather Bansley and Elizabeth Maloney in straight sets, 21-17 and 21-11.
 
Matauatu and Miller pushed China’s second seeded team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang to three sets with the Chinese pair having to come from behind to beat the Vanuatu girls 18-21, 21-19 and15-10 in 47 minutes.
 
Meanwhile Cunha and Lima stopped Great Britain’s Lucy Boulton and Denise Johnson, 21-17, 21-10 in 33 minutes.
 
A special visitor at Thursday’s matches was Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games., who met and chatted with Cook, who has her sights set on a record fifth Olympics in London.
 
 One of Britain’s all-time great middle-distance runners who won four medals at two Olympic Games, Coe commented: “This venue is the big ticket venue and we have always known from the outset that beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade, with Buckingham Palace at one end of The Mall and Downing Street at the other, was always likely to be a huge attraction.”
 
Following three games in three days of pool play round robin matches, the original 24-team field has been reduced to 16 teams from eleven countries on Thursday for the elimination bracket rounds.
 
Friday’s action will feature eight matches in the round of 16 of the single-elimination bracket phase of the tournament with the first session of four matches starting at noon (local time) and the second session of the last four matches beginning at 16.30.
 
Quarter-finals will be held on Saturday with the semi-finals and medal matches on Sunday on the stunning Horse Guards Parade centre court.