Tashkent, Uzbekistan, October 22, 2024 – Unbeaten Kyrgyzstan continued their domination over the 2024 CAVA Men’s Volleyball Championship at JAR Sport Complex, as hosts Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan will fight it out in the highly-anticipated clash to vie for the Thursday’s showdown.
On Tuesday, the penultimate day of the single round-robin preliminaries, Kyrgyzstan, which narrowly edged past hosts Uzbekistan in epic tie-breaker on Sunday, played well against Turkmenistan and had a lot of respect for the fight they put in. They demolished the strong opponents 3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 13-25, 25-23) to become the only unbeaten team in the one-week championship.
Outside hitter Omurbek Zhunusov played a big part of the Kyrgyzstan’s victory, producing 16 points from 13 kills, two blocks and one block, while middle blocker Medetbek Uulu Nurislam and outside hitter Toktoev Nurmukhammed contributed 12 and 10 points respectively.
Turkmenistan also had three players who scored double digits in this match. Opposite Veyisov Bayramgelid delivered a match-high 19 points including 16 attacks from 27 attempts on the Turkmenistan’s loss. Gulyyev Mithun and Rahimov Dovranbek added 12 and 10 points respectively.
As Turkmenistan dominated in kills (54 to 48) and blocks (12 to 11), Kyrgyzstan fared better in aces (3 to 1) and benefitted from more opponent error (26 to 23).
Later, hosts Uzbekistan, current world No.79, survived a huge first-set scare against Maldives, but were incredibly dominant in the next two sets as they gave no chance to the determined visitors, producing an exceptional 3-0 (27-25, 25-14, 25-20) win.
Middle blocker Javokhir Khushvaktov led Uzbekistan with 11 points from 7 attacks and 4 blocks, while skipper and opposite Sobirov Islomjon added another 10 points.
Captain and outside hitter Sajid Ismail was the lone Maldives’ player who reached double digits, scoring a match-high 18 points from 15 attacks, one block and two aces.
After five days, Kyrgyzstan surged ahead Turkmenistan to the top of the six-team standing with 11 points from four straight wins, while Uzbekistan are trailing in second place with just one point behind from three wins against one loss. Turkmenistan also had similar performance as the host side with 3 wins against one loss, but had only 8 points.
With only top two teams advancing to the Thursday’s final clash, Kyrgyzstan look set to making the cut to the showdown. They will next take on Afghanistan in their final encounter of the preliminaries on Wednesday.
Uzbekistan will go up against Turkmenistan on Wednesday in their last preliminary match, from which the winning team look quite certain of securing a final berth.
Earlier, Tajikistan tasted their first win in the championship, playing Afghanistan in a hard-fought five-set thriller. Tajikistan, with Iranian coach Mohammad Asadollahi at the helm, recovered from the first-set loss against the Afghan side, also guided by Iranian coach, Hamid Movahedi, to capture the hotly-contested battle 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 21-25, 25-23, lasting exhausting 122 minutes.
Powerful Ghulomaliev Yodgorjon led the Tajikistan’s scoring efforts in this intense encounter. The 201cm-tall opposite, 23, was unstoppable and became the match’s (and the championship’s so far) top scorer with 28 points from 24 kills and four blocks.
Captain and outside hitter Suhrob Mavlonazarov and middle blocker Riyoz Alidodov kept good company to contribute 19 and 16 points respectively.
Opposite Kohistani Naser chipped in 22 points including 20 kills from 45 attempts on the Afghanistan’s loss.
Afghanistan stay on the fourth place at the standing with 4 points from one win against three losses, while Tajikistan also had similar performance with one win against three losses, but had only 2 points to come in fifth position. Maldives became the only team not yet winning a match in the tournament to trail on the bottom six place with only one point.
As the single round-robin preliminaries conclude on Wednesday, the stakes are high with key matches set to determine teams’ ranking the following day, the final day of the championship.
MATCH RESULTS AND RANKING
MATCH SCHEDULE
October 23
11:00am: Afghanistan vs Kyrgyzstan
13:30pm: Tajikistan vs Maldives
16:00pm: Uzbekistan vs Turkmenistan
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