Video Report: Beach Volley Festival Phuket hailed slamming success

PHUKET: The Thai national team was knocked out of the professional men’s final of the Thailand Beach Volley Festival Phuket as the USA/Brazil team dug into the sands and spiked a win against the Russian/Guam team.

Brian Chappy and Danillio Lamparlio took the top place in the men’s finals. The professional women champions were Yupa Phukrongploy and Orawan Auying. Nearly 80 athletes took part in the inaugural event, which also had amateur men and four-on-four categories.

“We’d like to come back to Phuket next year and make this an annual event. So we will go back and evaluate how things went, what we can improve and see what the results will be,” Charlie Solares-Chungyampin, the director of Beach Volleyball Thailand, told the Phuket Gazette. “The Phuket community took good care of us. The local government and the governor were very helpful in making the event a success.”

The event was the first one of such magnitude for Mr Solares-Chungyampin, who grew up in the beach volleyball scene in California and is now working to develop the game in Thailand.

“I normally run monthly events in Koh Phangan, but this is bigger than anything I have ever produced. Our partners, Pentangle Promotions, brought a level of professionalism to the event that made it great,” Mr Solares-Chungyampin said.

The key to developing the sport in Thailand, which in general has outstanding weather for the beach volleyball – not too much wind or rain – is building from the sands up, Mr Solares-Chungyampin said.

“We need to just continue to grow the sport from the grass roots, offering training to tourists and students, and creating opportunities for them to play,” he said.

— Isaac Stone Simonelli