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News volleyball finals

The US beach volleyball women teams won 1st, 2nd & 4th, while Russia won 3rd place in the Phuket Thailand Open at Karon last weekend. Last Sunday, the Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop & a big crowd arrived at the enlarged volleyball area beside Karon beach, for the finals of the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, the biggest in size with record number of 66 teams from 28 countries taking part on the Swatch FIVB World Tour for women's beach volleyball. The finals were beamed live by NBT TV nationwide & worldwide with recordings bringing a potential amazing audience of over 2 billion. In the 3rd/4th place match, Maria Bratkova and Evgenia Ukolova of Russia (in white) won their country's first-ever bronze medals with a lot of support from Russian fans in the crowd. They came back from one set down to win 15-21, 22-20 and 15-9 win in an exciting 53 minutes against Lauren Fendrick and Ashley Ivy of USA. In the main final for 1st & 2nd place, another American team was guaranteed to win with Jen Kessy and April Ross (in red) defending their Phuket win last year, against fellow Americans Angie Akers and Tyra Turner. In the comparatively quieter & easier 37-minute final, Kessy & Ross won 21-12 and 21-17 and duly collected the winners cheque of US$30000 while Akers & Turner got US$21000 for second-place. After the presentation the winners told us it was tough tournament but straight forward final and they were impressed with the Phuket sand & organisation: voice winners: "It ...