Bangkok, Thailand, July 28, 2022 – Hosts Kyrgyzstan captured the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Challenge Cup after fantastic comeback 3-2 win against Turkmenistan in the final showdown in Bishkek on Wednesday.
The hard-fought five-set thriller, ending 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 15-7 in favour of the host side, was the Kyrgyzstan’s sweet revenge for the loss at home against Turkmenistan in the preliminaries.
Attracting four teams to strut their stuff and vie for top honour, the July 23-27 tournament had served as a test of Kyrgyzstan, as planned and confirmed by CAVA, in their final preparation to host the 3rd AVC Men’s Challenge Cup, due to take place in Cholpon-Ata between August 28 and September 3.
Apart from giving hosts Kyrgyzstan chances of testing new E-Scoresheet with support of Mr Pavarit Dairinram from AVC ICT, who tested VIS online, the five-day event also turned out to be springboard of participating teams to their success in the AVC Cup for Men in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand from August 7 to 14 and the afore-mentioned AVC Men’s Challenge Cup in Cholpon-Ata.
CAVA Secretary General Mr Kylych Sarbaghyshev, himself Secretary General of National Volleyball Federation of Kyrgyzstan, said that all planned preparation events and tests went well.
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and hosts Kyrgyzstan played single round-robin preliminaries and after that, they were ranked respectively according to their performances in the preliminaries.
The teams then competed in the cross semifinals, with the first-ranked team taking on the fourth-placed side and the second-placers battling it out against the third-placed finishers. The two winners then fought it out for the eventual title, with the losers vying for bronze medal in the third-place playoff clash.
After hard-fought victories against Kazakhstan 3:2 (19-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-13) and Kyrgyzstan 3:2 (28-26, 17-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-8), Turkmenistan pulled off a convincing 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-10) triumph over Uzbekistan and advanced to the semi-finals as the first-round winners with 7 points from a clean sweep of three wins.
Kyrgyzstan faced no issue in shutting out Uzbekistan 3-0, went down to Turkmenistan 2-3 and ousted Kazakhstan 3-1 to end their first-round campaign with similar 7 points. However, with the better match win/loss record, Turkmenistan stayed atop the preliminaries, with Kyrgyzstan in second place. Kazakhstan finished third place and Uzbekistan came in fourth position.
In the semifinals, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan emerged as the two winners, with the former brushing off Uzbekistan in straight sets 25-20, 25-10, 25-15 and the latter disposing of Kazakhstan in thrilling four-setter 25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 25-16.
As Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan battled it out for the title, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan contested the bronze-medal match.
Dream team
In the Wednesday’s final clash, hosts Kyrgyzstan recovered from the first set loss to win fantastic tie-breaker 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 15-7 to reign supreme. Turkmenistan picked up silver, while Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan came in third and fourth places respectively.
Mr Elmurza Satybaldiev, President of National Volleyball Federation of Kyrgyzstan, middle.
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