DAY 5 WRAP UP
Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, June 11, 2022 – Japan and Korea kept their remarkable unbeaten streaks intact after completion of action-packed pool round-robin preliminaries of the 14th Asian Women’s U18 Volleyball Championship on Saturday, as China and hosts Thailand also joined the fray in semifinals.
After hectic five days in the pool plays, Korea and Japan topped Pool A and Pool B without losing a single set to their respective rivals, while Thailand and China also went to their great lengths to finish second in respective Pool A and Pool B.
The aforementioned quartet advanced to the cross semifinals, with hosts Thailand going up against defending and eight-time champions Japan and fired-up Korea setting up mighty clash with former four-time winners China. Win or lose, all four teams are assured of winning their places at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U19 World Championship.
Contesting their last preliminary Pool B match at Nakhon Pathom Sports Centre Gymnasium on Saturday, perennial champions Japan punctured the Philippine defence into shreds with their devastating attacks to beat the lower-ranked opponents in comfortable three-setter 25-11, 25-18, 25-15.
China, silver medalists at the previous edition in Nakhon Pathom in 2018, captured a convincing win in their last match in the pool plays following a sensational 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-15) triumph over Kazakhstan.
The other Pool B clash on Saturday saw Chinese Taipei hog the limelight to shut out India in convincing straight sets 25-19, 25-18, 25-11. With this scintillating win, Chinese Taipei overtook Kazakhstan as the third place in Pool B with 9 points. The Kazakh girls earlier on Saturday maintained their third place in Pool B after disappointing 0-3 loss to China, but later suffered a sudden slump to the fourth place in the pool. India completed their first-round campaign in 5th place.
In Pool A, both Iran and Uzbekistan had the similar record of 3 points from one win against Australia and two losses. This crucial match between them was to determine the third and fourth places in the pool. However, Iran fared better to win this lop-sided battle 25-9, 25-15, 25-12.
Before a partisan crowd of about 1,300 home fans, Thailand put up a gallant fight against the Koreans, but failed to make their mark and succumbed to straight-set loss 20-25, 19-25, 19-25 to the much stronger rivals.
At the end of the preliminaries on Saturday, Korea captured the top spot in Pool A with 12 points from 4 straight wins, followed by hosts Thailand with 9 points from 3 wins against one loss. Iran came in third place with 6 points from 2 wins against 2 losses. Uzbekistan collected 3 points from one win against 3 losses to finish fourth position. Winless Australia came in fifth place with no point earned.
Pool B was definitely dominated by Japan with unchallenged 15 points from 5 wins on the trot, while China finished second with 12 points from 4 wins against one loss. Chinese Taipei ended their pool plays campaign in third place with 9 points from 3 wins against 2 losses, with Kazakhstan in fourth position with 2 wins against 3 losses. India came in fifth place with 3 points from one win against 4 losses, while underdogs Philippines finished on bottom 6th place with no point awarded.
On Sunday, the penultimate day of the eight-day championship, Philippines (B6) will play Australia (A5) in a match to decide the 11th place. As the losing team in this match will return with the 11th position in this championship, the winners will move on to fight for the 9th place with India (B5) on Monday, the final day of the competition.
As top two teams from each pool made the cut for the semifinals, the next two teams from each pool will contest the classification round for 5th-8th places which sees Iran (A3) take on Kazakhstan (B4) and Uzbekistan (A4) challenge Chinese Taipei (B3). The two winners will fight it out for the 5th place on Monday, with the two losing teams battling it out for the 7th position.
In the Sunday’s semifinals, unbeaten Korea (A1) will face off with China (B2), while title-holders Japan will meet hosts Thailand. Moving a step closer to capturing the crown, the two winning teams on Sunday set up a highly-anticipated final showdown. The two losers will contest the third-place playoff for bronze medal.
At the previous edition in 2018 in Nakhon Pathom, Japan reigned supreme, while China, Thailand and Korea finished second, third and fourth places respectively. The 2020 episode was also set to take place at the similar competition site in Nakhon Pathom, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AVC gave the green light to the top four teams from the 2018 edition to be eligible for the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U18 World Championship (the age group adjustment has yet been effective at that time), but Japan, China and Korea backed out of the world meet due to grave concerns over the COVID-19 epidemic, leaving Thailand the only Asian outfit to test their mettle at the 2021 world meet in Durango City, Mexico.
MATCH RESULTS AND STANDINGS
MATCH SCHEDULE
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