Tehran, Iran, August 22, 2022 – India grabbed bronze medal after narrowly edging past Korea in hard-fought five-set thriller 25-20, 25-21, 26-28, 19-25, 15-12 in the third-place playoff in the 2022 Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship at the Federation Hall on Monday.
For India, to take bronze this time was extremely impressive as they finished 7th in the previous edition in Tabriz four years ago.
Against formidable Korea, the team they had beaten 3-0 in the pool plays, India got off to a flying start to surge ahead 17-13 and from then took command. As Korea had no answer to their aggression, the Indians went on their fine form, unleashing a barrage of spectacular attacks to capture the set 25-20.
In the second set, India produced exceptional attacks and blocks to take the lead with a two-point clear at 19-17. India still played well defensively and offensively to win the set 25-21.
Lee Woojin brought Korea back on the right track, and India found the Koreans a tough nut to crack and surrendered to the irresistible rivals in the next two sets 26-28, 19-25 to entirely brighten their high hopes of making a comeback.
In the decider, India showed more improvement and came out with a different level, winning back-to-back points and from then playing more consistently to win 15-12, match, and bronze medal for first time in 14 years since they had bagged bronze in 2008 in Sri Lanka. Korea finished fourth, a place far from impressive, as they were silver medalists at the previous two episodes in 2017 and 2018.
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