Urmia, Iran, August 23, 2023 – Iran and Japan punched their tickets to the semi-finals on Wednesday in the on-going 22nd Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship at Al Ghadir Hall, while China, Korea, Qatar and Chinese Taipei all made it through to quarterfinals stage.
Each of the advancing teams won their respective matches in the Final 12 as the high-intensity knockout games in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) tournament are now underway.
The Iranians and Japanese, both finalists from the previous edition in 2021, barged directly into the Final Four with emphatic shutout wins over Pakistan and Bahrain, respectively.
As per the unique tournament format, they made it to the quarterfinals, where China will take on Korea and Qatar will face Chinese Taipei to determine the other two semi-finalists.
The quarters are scheduled to take place Thursday and the semifinals on Friday. These games will set the stage for the gold and bronze medal matches, as well as the final ranking fixtures, on the championship’s concluding day on Saturday.
Reigning and consecutive two-time champions Iran stayed in the hunt for an unprecedented title treble after easily disposing of Pakistan 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-13) backed yet again by their massive legion of supporters who packed Urmia’s Al Ghadir Hall.
In this match, outside hitter Meisam Salehi had a team-high 18 points for the Iranians including five blocks, while opposite spiker Amin Esmaeilnezhad contributed 11 markers, all in attack.
For Pakistan, opposite Murad Khan finished with nine points as their leading scorer, while Usman Faryad Ali and Murad Jehan each had seven points.
“My players found the criticality of this stage and were showing quality performance from the very first,” Iran’s head coach Behrouz Ataei Nouri highlighted. “Pakistan was very unlucky that they had to play with us in front of these huge passionate fans. It is not important who we play against in the semi-final, we will focus on our goal only.”
The Iranians, currently ranked number 10 in the world, are hoping to become the first team ever to win the Asian senior men’s crown three times in a row. Apart from this current run, five other sides had won back-to-back titles in the past, including Iran themselves in 2011 and 2013; Japan twice in 2015 and 2017 as well as in 1983 and 1987; Korea in 2001 and 2003; and China in 1997 and 1999. None of them went on to claim a third successive championship.
The Iranians have a rest day Thursday and will return to action on Friday for their semi-final against the winners of the China-Korea quarter-final clash.
World No.5 Japan were also dominant in their Final 12 clash Wednesday, thoroughly outplaying an overmatched Bahrain 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-17).
The silver-medallists from 2021 and bronze medallists at the recent VNL, continued to blitz their opposition in Urmia, taking their third straight win while having yet to concede a single set in the tournament.
“It was a good match,” said Japan’s French head coach Philippe Blain. “With all due respect to the Bahrain team, technically speaking, they are far away from Japan, and we were able to easily win this match. Japan’s work starts from the next match in the semi-finals.”
Outside hitter Ran Takahashi top scored for the Japanese with 12 points, while adding nine points was skipper Yuki Ishikawa.
“We won easily in the first set but we made mistakes in the next sets and finally defeated the opponent with effort,” noted Ishikawa. “For Japan, it does not matter which team we face [moving forward]; we will only try to play the best in each match and win.”
Opposite spiker Ali Ebrahim had 11 points to pace Bahrain. Skipper Naser Anan commented: “We did not perform well in this match, but we want to get better and try to get a better position. We did our best in this match, but we did not have enough skill to overcome the powerhouse of Asia. It is difficult to play against them.”
Bahrain’s Argentinian head coach Ruben Adrian Wolochin added: “It was a difficult match because we faced a strong team. Iran and Japan are the strongest teams in Asia.”
Wolochin praised the support Urmia’s volleyball-loving fans have been showing in the tournament. “We had heard about Urmia being the volleyball capital of Iran before, but since being here, we have closely observed it,” he said. “The people and spectators of Urmia are great and they are always kind to us.”
Japan now await their opponents in the Final Four, which will be the victors in Thursday’s Qatar-Chinese Taipei quarter-final match-up.
China were yet again pushed to the limit but did just enough to make it past the Final 12 and into the quarters.
Bronze-medallists from the 2021 continental event, the Chinese played their third successive five-setter, claiming a hard-earned 3-2 (31-29, 19-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13) decision against a battling India.
Opposite spiker Zhang Guanhua was the victors’ top scorer with 31 points, including 28 in attack, while middle blockers Wang Dongchen and Miao Ruantong each contributed 13.
Opposite Vinit Kumar scored 22 to lead the Indians while Ashwal Rai and Amit Balwan Singh chipped in with 17 apiece. Six of Ashwal’s output came on blocks.
China have no time to rest as they move on to face another tough opponents in Korea on Thursday.
The Koreans themselves needed to go the maximum on Wednesday to secure their quarter-final place. They were taken to five sets by an inspired Indonesia before pulling off a nail-biting 3-2 (25-16, 19-25, 22-25, 25-19, 16-14) result.
Despite trailing 1-2 in the match and then facing a slim deficit midway through the tie-breaker, the Koreans showed their poise and prevailed in a hugely exciting finish, with outside hitter Jung Jiseok sending home the match-winner.
“Indonesian players did very well and pressured us, but in the end, we came out as winners,” said Korea head coach Do Hun Im. “We have tough matches ahead and opponents like China and Iran are strong teams, but we are looking to present our best performance.”
Opposite Heo Subong put in a superstar performance with 30 points including five on blocks to spearhead the Koreans. Jung Jiseok added 15 in the win, while middle blocker Kim Kyumin chipped in with eight points, also finishing with five blocks.
Korea captain Hoang Taekeui commented: “We always consider Indonesia as a tough competitor and we faced problems with them in today’s match. From the beginning, we entered the court with all our energy and power, but Indonesia performed very well from the second set onwards.”
Opposite Agil Angga Anggara scored 19 points to pace the Indonesians, while outside hitters Farhan Halim and Fahri Septian Putratama added 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Indonesia head coach Jiang Jie said: “Our players are young and we tried to maintain our focus in the game, but it was not possible. We had a number of mistakes in serves and maybe this was the reason that we have lost. We will continue to be a better team in the future.”
Skipper Hernanda Zulfi added: “The reason for the loss was the bad receptions and also the strong serves of Korea. We had a good analysis of Korea but in the fifth set, we could not receive their powerful serves.”
Qatar maintained their fine winning ways so far with a resounding 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-22) triumph against Thailand.
Like Japan, the Qataris have won all three of their matches to date in straight sets and move on to the quarter-finals looking to improve on their fifth-place finish in 2021. Raimi Wadidie top scored for Qatar with 17 points against the Thais, while fellow-outside hitter Youssef Oughlaf chipped in with 13.
Opposite Napadet Bhinijdee finished as Thailand’s top scorer with 14 points, while outside hitter Anurak Phanram added 10 in the losing effort.
Qatar next lock horns Thursday with Chinese Taipei, which comfortably took care of Iraq in their Final 12 game.
Looking to contend once again for a podium place and better their fourth-place classification in the previous edition, Chinese Taipei outclassed their rivals for the convincing 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-18) outcome.
Chang Yu-Sheng had 13 points to pace their team, while fellow-opposite Wu Tsung-Hsuan added 11 in the win. The Iraqis were led by the 12 markers of Hussein Nameer Shamil Kamoona, while Muntadher Yasir had 10 points.
Elsewhere Wednesday, a classification match took place for the 13th to 17th rankings.
Kazakhstan came from a set down to defeat Uzbekistan 3-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-19), led by Ilya Tavolzhanskiy, who finished with 17 points, and Boris Kempa, who contributed 15.
Uzbek captain Bunyod Egamkulov was his side’s top scorer with 14 points, while middle blocker Azizbek Kuchkorov added 12.
“We didn’t start the match well; we did not take the opponents seriously at first,” admitted Kazakhstan captain Nodirkhan Kadirkhanov. “My players’ negligence made us lose the first set, but in the second, we performed our real level and achieved the desired result.”
Egamkulov commented: “We had a good start, but then, we did not perform as expected. We will use these experiences in the next match. In the end, I would like to thank the Urmia’s fans for their support.”
Aside from Thursday’s pair of quarter-final clashes, there will also be four classification contests. They will be for seventh-to-12th rankings, with India taking on Indonesia and Iraq facing Thailand; as well as for 13th to 16th, with Hong Kong, China playing Kazakhstan and Afghanistan taking on Bangladesh.
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