Bangkok, Thailand, July 27, 2022 – Bahrain and hosts Saudi Arabia respectively topped Pool A and Pool B after the conclusion of the pool round-robin preliminaries of the 1st West Asia Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship at Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz Sports Hall in Dammam, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
On the last day of the pool plays on Tuesday, Qatar suffered the fourth straight loss at the hands of Saudi Arabia, which performed superbly to dispose of the unfancied rivals in dramatic four-setter 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18 for a clean sweep in Pool B.
In the same pool, Palestine struggled hard to beat Kuwait in epic tie-breaker 28-26, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12.
In Pool A encounters, Iraq pulled off a comeback 3-1 (22-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-23) win against Lebanon, while the match between Bahrain and Jordan turned out to be one-way traffic with the former brushing off the latter in comfortable straight sets 25-14, 25-13, 25-11.
At the end of the pool round-robin preliminaries, Bahrain captured the top spot in Pool A with 10 points from 3 wins against one loss, followed by Iraq, having the similar performance of 3-1 record, with just one point behind.
Lebanon finished third place with 6 points from 2 wins against 2 losses, with UAE in fourth place after collecting 5 points from 2 wins against 2 losses. Jordan did not win a single match to finish on the bottom 5th place in Pool A.
Hosts Saudi Arabia topped Pool B with a maximum 12 points from four wins in a row, while Palestine came in second place with 6 points from 3 wins against one loss. Kuwait finished third as they claimed similar 6 points but had only 2 wins against 2 losses.
Syria ended their campaign in the pool plays in fourth position with 4 points from one win against 3 losses, while Qatar lost them all to claim only 2 points.
Top four teams from each pool advanced to the quarterfinals, while the teams finishing fifth in each pool will fight it out for ninth place overall.
Wednesday will be the rest day. The competition resumes on Thursday in the cross quarterfinals, with Group A winners taking on Group B fourth-placers and Group A second place challenging Group B third-place finishers.
According to the competition formula, 1A-Bahrain will next take on 4B-Syria, while 2A-Iraq play 3B-Kuwait. 3A-Lebanon will go up against 2B-Palestine and 4A-UAE challenge 1B-Saudi Arabia. 5A-Jordan and 5B-Qatar will fight it out in the 9th-10th playoff clash.
RESULTS FROM POOL ROUND-ROBIN PRELIMS
July 22
Pool A: Bahrain beat Iraq 3-1, UAE beat Jordan 3-1
Pool B: Saudi Arabia beat Syria 3-0, Palestine beat Qatar 3-2
July 23
Pool A: Iraq beat UAE 3-1, Bahrain beat Lebanon 3-1
Pool B: Saudi Arabia beat Kuwait 3-0, Syria beat Qatar 3-2
July 24
Pool A: Lebanon beat UAE 3-0, Iraq beat Jordan 3-0
Pool B: Saudi Arabia beat Palestine 3-1, Kuwait beat Syria 3-2
July 25
Pool A: UAE beat Bahrain 3-2 (18-25, 25-21, 25-23, 12-25, 15-8), Lebanon beat Jordan 3-0 (25-13, 25.-20, 25-12)
Pool B: Palestine beat Syria 3-2 (23-25, 13-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-13), Kuwait beat Qatar 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22)
July 26
Pool A: Iraq beat Lebanon 3-1 (22-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-23), Bahrain beat Jordayn 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-11)
Pool B: Saudi Arabia beat Qatar 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18), Palestine beat Kuwait 3-2 (28-26, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12)
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