Lalitpur, Nepal, August 25, 2019 – Irresistible Kyrgyzstan brought the curtains down on the Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship Nepal 2019 with a bang after overpowering Uzbekistan in hard-fought three-setter 26-24 27-25 25-19 in the Saturday’s final showdown at Army PTASC Gymnasium to dominate the six-day, seven-team tournament.
Kyrgyzstan had a remarkable undefeated record coming into the final, with convincing victories over hosts Nepal (3-0) and Maldives (3-0) in the pool round-robin preliminaries to capture the top spot in Pool A, while Uzbekistan also did likewise, defeating Bangladesh (3-0), Turkmenistan (3-0) and Afghanistan (3-0) to top Pool B.
In the Thursday’s semi-finals, Kyrgyzstan continued their invincibility to stun reigning champions Turkmenistan 3-0, while Uzbekistan powered past Maldives 3-0. As a result, the final clash saw Kyrgyzstan challenge Uzbekistan on Saturday, while Maldives took on Turkmenistan in the third-place playoff match on Friday.
Against Turkmenistan in the bronze-medal match on Friday, Maldives found the title-holders a tough nut to crack to go down in straight sets 19-25 20-25 19-25, while in the 5th-6th playoff match on the same day, hosts Nepal salvaged their pride as they struggled hard to beat Afghanistan in hard-fought four-set thriller 25-23 23-25 25-18 26-24.
On Saturday, the final day of the competitive competition, Kyrgyzstan, which landed the 2017 title in Maldives, strutted their stuff against Uzbekistan in the clash of the two unbeaten teams. Kyrgyzstan survived a scare from Uzbekistan to beat the toughest rivals in hotly-contested three-setter 26-24 27-25 25-19 to capture the title.
Kanybek Uulu Onolbek chipped in with 17 points for Kyrgyzstan including 16 attacks, while Islomjon Sobirov topscored with 13 points for Uzbekistan.
FINAL TEAM RANKING
1. KYRGYZSTAN
2. Uzbekistan
3. Turkmenistan
4. Maldives
5. Nepal
6. Afghanistan
7. Bangladesh
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Most Valuable Player: Kanybek Uulu Onolbek No.7 Kyrgyzstan
Best Spiker: Islomjon Sobirov No.7 Uzbekistan
Best Blocker: Mithun Gulyyev No.11 Turkmenistan
Best Setter: Zhamalidin Musaev No.11 Kyrgyzstan
Best Libero: Dilmurod Sattorov No.9 Uzbekistan
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