The 1st Asian Men’s U16 Volleyball Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan has reached its climax, with the best two teams from each pool through to Top 8 and in contention for the top-three finish which will seal their places in the next year’s inaugural FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship.
The pool round-robin preliminaries came to a conclusion on Monday when top two teams from Pools A, B, C and D made the cut for the Top 8, split to Pool E (for teams from Pools A and C) and Pool F (for teams from Pools B and D). After that, teams will play cross matches to determine the best two teams from Pools E and F to qualify for the 1-4 semifinals, with teams finishing third and fourth places in each pool relegated to Classification Round for ranking 5-8.
Meanwhile, the lower-ranked teams finishing third in Pools A, C and D and fourth in Pool C will next play a single round-robin competition. Teams which have already met in the pool round-robin preliminaries will not play again, but their results in the pool play will be taken into consideration for ranking 9-12.
On Monday, the last day for the pool round-robin preliminaries, hosts Uzbekistan, Thailand, Japan, Iran and Pakistan pulled out of sensational wins against respective rivals in their pools.
In Pool D at the JAR Hall, Pakistan, which had beaten Chinese Taipei in straight sets earlier, had a field day with comfortable straight-set 25-9, 25-17, 25-13 win against Mongolia. In this match, Pakistan fared much better in attack and service, scoring 41 points through their powerful attacks (Mongolia 8) and 11 aces (Mongolia 2).
Yahya Muhammad chipped in with 16 points from 8 attacks and another 8 through ace serves for Pakistan. No Mongolian player scored double digits, with Munkbat Munkh-Erdene winning 6 points on the team’s loss.
At the Yunusobod Sports Complex Hall, Thailand made a strong start in the championship with thrilling 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 25-15) win against Australia in Pool B. Due to the late withdrawal of Bahrain and India, Pool B featured only Thailand and Australia and as a result, both of them finished top two in the Pool and automatically qualified for the next round.
Captain Sorasak Phunsanong delivered 13 points for Thailand, while Nakarin Paeprakhon and Rungwikai Walaijai kept good company to add 10 and 8 points respectively. Tom Bergemann and Hayden Baker scored respective 15 and 13 points on the Australia’s losing effort.
In Pool C, China, which suffered their first loss to Iran the previous day, left the Yunusobod Hall with heads low in great disappointment on Monday when they succumbed to the second loss at the hands of Japan. The Chinese side went down in hard-fought four-setter 16-25, 25-21, 18-25, 23-25, resulting in the third position they finished in Pool C and the relegation to Classification Round for ranking 9-12.
With Rei Iwata and Akira Shinyama on fire in attack, Japan proved a tough nut to crack for the Chinese counterparts.
As expected, Rei Iwata and Akira Shinyama were the most productive players for the Japan’s victory. Iwata scored a match-high 19 points from 17 attacks, one block and one ace, with Shinyama adding another 18 points from 15 attacks, one block and 2 aces. Wang Dingzheng led China with 13 points including 12 attacks from 26 attempts.
Another Pool C clash saw Iran continue their unbeaten streak in the championship. Fresh from scoring two big wins against Japan and China in the first two days, Iran made it three in a row on Monday with an exceptional straight-set 25-12, 25-6, 25-12 victory against Saudi Arabia.
The Iran’s dominance was visible in the match stats as the winners dominated in all skills: attacks (22 to 2), blocks (4 to 3) and service (6 to 2), besides benefiting from more opponent errors (43 to 23).
No player from both sides scored double digits in this match, with Hosseini Sayed Mohammad Mahdi topscoring for Iran with 9 points including 8 attacks. Mukhtar Saeed, Althinayyan Yazan and Alali Abdullah scored 2 points apiece on the Saudi Arabia’s loss.
In Pool A, Uzbekistan satisfied home fans inside the Yunusobod Hall with another victory on Monday, routing Kazakhstan in convincing straight sets 25-21, 25-19, 25-20 to stretch their unbeaten run to two in succession.
Both sides played with almost the same level, but what made the difference among them was the unforced mistakes. Kazakhstan became more prone to erratic play which cost them dear. Uzbekistan benefitted the opponent errors with 35 to 25 in this match.
Varzilov Artyom and Haydarov Ogabek scored 9 points each for Uzbekistan, while Azizbek Khabibullaev and captain Yernar Akylbek led Kazakhstan with 10 points apiece.
At the end of the pool round-robin preliminaries on Monday, Uzbekistan topped Pool A with 6 points from two straight wins without losing a set to their respective rivals. Kazakhstan finished second with 3 points from one win against one loss, while winless Hong Kong, China came in third place with no point awarded.
Thailand captured the top spot in Pool B with 3 points from one win, with Australia in second spot with no point from one loss.
Pool C was dominated by Iran with 8 points from three wins in a row, while Japan finished second with 7 points from 2 wins against one loss. China secured their third spot with 4 points from one win against two losses, with Saudi Arabia in fourth position with no point earned.
Pakistan finished atop Pool D with 6 points from two successive wins without losing a set to their respective opponents. Chinese Taipei were second with 3 points from one win against one loss and winless Mongolia came in third place with no point awarded.
Tuesday is a rest day for recovery of all participating teams. The competition resumes on Wednesday in the round of Top 8 in Pools E and F and Classification Round for ranking 9-12 in Pool G.
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