Manama, Bahrain, May 21, 2023 – Police Sports Team grabbed bronze medal after overpowering Shahdab Yazd in four-set thriller 24-26, 25-16, 25-20, 25-19 in the third-place playoff at the 2023 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship at Isa Bin Rashid Hall 1 on Sunday.
Regarding Qatar, two teams of Al-Rayyan and Al-Arabi were the ones which experienced taking part in the Asian Club Championship and this is the first time that Police Sports Team has been awarded the chance to make its debut attendance and finishing third, something they can be proud of.
Against the giant Qataris, the Iranians got off to a brilliant start to win the first set 26-24. However, Efe Bayram and Oliver Venno brought Police Sports Team back on track, utilizing their exceptional spikes and blocks to help them take the lead with a five-point clear at 10-5 in the second set. Still, Shahdab Yazd performed superbly both in defense and offence to briefly reduce the margin before going down the comfortable set 16-25 for a 1-1.
In the third set, Shahdab Yazd found Police Sports Team a tough nut to crack and surrendered to the irresistible rivals 20-25.
In the fourth set, Police Sports Team produced exceptional attacks and blocks to take the lead with a five-point advantage at 15-10. The Qataris still played well defensively and offensively to win the set 25-19 to entirely dash out the Iranians’ high hopes of coming back.
Police Sports Team claimed the bronze medal with six wins and one single loss to Indonesia’s Jakarta Bhayangkara Presisi in the semi-finals match, while Shahdab Yazd were relegated to the fourth place with three losses, two of them against Police in the quarterfinals Pool F and third-place playoff and one against Suntory Sunbirds.
The Shahdab Yazd’s stunning loss missed the Iran’s podium for the first time in 22 years. Since the tournament inception in 1999 in China, teams from Iran have never missed the podium. Their only failure dated back to 2001 in China when Sanam Tehran finished 5th in the championship. Aside from the year 2001, Iranian teams have never missed the podium in any edition of the championship.
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