BEACG VOLLEYBALL: Australia’s Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy have successfully defended their Asian Beach Volleyball title with a straight sets win in Hong Kong.

Fellow Australians Nicole Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solar finished with the bronze medal, with Oceania teams filling the podium.

Bawden and Clancy are currently ranked ninth in the world, but chose to defend their title rather than compete in the lucrative world tour finals in Fort Lauderdale.

The Australians could not have been more impressive in the final, seeing off Vanuatu’s Linline Matauatu and Miller Pata 21-16, 21-15 in the gold medal match.

Linline and Pata are currently ranked 29th in the world and are expected to challenge Australia for the Oceania position at next year’s Rio Olympics.

Bawden and Clancy are almost guaranteed of qualifying, with the top 15 teams in the world progressing automatically.

The Oceania qualifiers will be held in Australia in March next year, at a beach yet to be determined.

Australia’s second-ranked team of Laird and del Solar were beaten by the team from Vanuatu in Sunday’s semi-final, before going on to beat the Chinese team of Ma Yuanyuan and Xia Xinyi 21-16, 21-14 in the bronze medal playoff.