Riffa, Bahrain, August 24, 2022 – Reigning champions Iran, hosts Bahrain, Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh and China topped their respective pools at the completion of the pool round-robin preliminaries of the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship at the Isa Sports City Hall on Wednesday.
With top two teams from each pool advancing to the highly-anticipated second round for 1st-12th places, teams finishing second – Saudi Arabia, India, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Pakistan also had a chance to prove their abilities and strive for their success in this topflight championship and the two berths on offer for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship.
Teams finishing third places from each pool suffered relegation to classification round for 13th-18th places. They comprised former three-time champions Japan, Hong Kong China, Kuwait, Australia and Chinese Taipei, which finished sixth place at the previous edition, also held here in 2018.
On Wednesday, the last day of the pool plays to determine the top two teams of each pool, teams came out in full force to squeeze through to the second round of the top teams which saw three of five matches contested end in hard-fought five-set thrillers.
In Pool A, Hong Kong, China failed to make their mark to succumb to two straight losses in the first two days and faced relegation to next contest the classification round for lower-ranked sides. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia fought it all out for the top spot in Pool A which saw the host side shrug off rust to engineer a strong fightback for a dramatic four-set win 16-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-20.
Defending and six-time champions Iran gained a stranglehold on India to pull off comfortable straight sets 25-20, 25-10, 25-19 in their last Pool B encounter on Wednesday.
In Pool C, Qatar survived a sturdy challenge from Kuwait to beat the spirited opponents in exhausting five sets 25-18, 23-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-8.
There was no match contested in Pool D on Wednesday as the pool plays came to a close on Tuesday with Thailand demolishing the United Arab Emirates in straight sets. Due to the withdrawal of Kazakhstan, only two teams remained in contention in this pool.
In Pool E, Iraq, Bangladesh and Australia battled hard to remain on course for the fight in the elite round of the 1st-12th places. Bangladesh set the pace with a dramatic 3-1 win against Iraq on Monday, but Iraq regained the lost pride to defeat Australia with the same margin 3-1 the following day.
The Aussies took their turns on Wednesday as they poured everything they had to win their tough match. Their determination paid off impressively as they made a fantastic comeback to beat Bangladesh in epic tiebreaker 29-31, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 15-11.
However, as Iraq and Bangladesh claimed one win each to bag aggregate 4 and 3 points respectively, the Australia’s hard-fought win in their last-ditch effort in the pool plays was not sufficient to carry them to the second round of the top teams. Australia claimed only 2 points in their tough match against Bangladesh to finish third in Pool E and were finally relegated to classification round of lower-ranked sides.
In Pool F, with China winning two matches in a row to advance to the second round, Chinese Taipei and Pakistan fought it out for the only spot left to join China in that round. Chinese Taipei made a strong start to take the first two sets 25-20, 25-17, but could not maintain their remarkable run. Pakistan gathered their courage and bounced back gallantly to win the remaining three sets 25-19, 25-17, 15-11 to run away and join the fray in the second round.
At the completion of the preliminaries, hosts Bahrain finished on top of Pool A with 6 points from two straight wins, followed by Saudi Arabia (3 points) and winless Hong Kong, China. Iran topped Pool B with 5 points from two wins in succession, while India (3) and Japan (1) finished second and third places respectively.
Korea led the charge in Pool C with 6 points from two wins on the trot, with Qatar (2) and Kuwait (1) in respective second and third places.
Thailand stayed atop Pool D with 3 points from one lone match against the UAE, which finished second in this pool of only two teams.
Bangladesh topped Pool E with 4 points from two consecutive wins, followed by Iraq (3) and Australia (2), while China captured the top spot in Pool F with 6 points from two successive wins. Pakistan and Chinese Taipei came in second and third places with 2 and one point respectively.
Mr Emile Jabbour
On Wednesday, the drawing of lots for top two teams in each pool was conducted at the Volleyball Hall 1 in Bahrain Development Centre with the CC President and Technical Delegate Mr Emile Jabbour-led Control Committee in attendance. One representative each from teams finishing first and second in each pool had been invited to witness the ceremony.
The results of the drawing of lots in the second round (1st-12th places) can be seen on the bottom.
Thursday, August 25 is the rest day for rest and recovery. The competitive competition resumes on Friday in the second round for top 12 teams, while the other lower-ranked 5 teams will test their mettle in the classification round for 13th-18th places.
MATCH RESULTS & TEAM RANKING
DRAWING OF LOTS
MATCH SCHEDULE
Related links of AVC
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/AsianVolleyballConfederation
AVC Twitter: click: www.twitter.com/AsianVolleyball
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/avcvolley/?hl=en
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation
AVC WeChat: Asian Volleyball Confederation