Chongqing, China, March 4, 2017 – “Now all is set for the “SMM” 11th Asian Girls’ U18 Volleyball Championship to open,” said Control Committee Chairman and Technical Delegate Mr. Shanrit Wongprasert right after the final inspection of the venue Saturday afternoon.

The “SMM” 11th Asian Girls’ U18 Volleyball Championship is due to be held from March 5 to 13 in Chongqing No. 8 Secondary School Yubei Campus, which is a brand new campus of this historical school founded in 1938.

“Following the first inspection on Friday, we made some modifications accordingly,” said Mr. Cao Yong, Principal of the School. “It is our first time to organize such level of international volleyball event despite the fact that we have hosted many national tournaments before. Thanks to the construction of the new campus, we have the newly-constructed gymnasium to host this championship. We gave up all the weekends and holidays in the past month to prepare for this event. Almost all the facilities including the floors and nets are newly bought. I am glad now the AVC Control Committee officials are satisfied with our work.”

“We just had the referee practice clinic and tested all the facilities. The local referees are experienced. Everything is running smoothly. I am looking forward to a successful championship,” said Mr. Sun Jianhui, AVC Referee Delegate.

“There are still some problems in communication, TV and venue decoration 2-3 weeks ago. But now everything is ready,” Mr. Shanrit was satisfied with the great effort made by the local organizing committee at the first CC & OC Joint Meeting Thursday.

A total of 11 teams including reigning champions Japan, China, Thailand, Korea, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Australia, Iran and Samoa will compete in the next nine days for the four tickets to the 2017 FIVB Girls U18 World Championship, which is due to take place in Argentina from August 18 to 27, 2017.

The opening match will see the defending and successive five-time champions Japan against New Zealand at 2pm Beijing Time followed by the host China facing Iran in 4:30pm. Korea will battle with Uzbekistan at 7pm to finish the opening day matches. All the three matches will be live broadcast by SMM, AVC’s official broadcasting partner, to many countries in AVC region.

Starting the volleyball as its traditional sport 55 years ago, Chongqing No. 8 Secondary School has achieved over 50 champions in various Chongqing tournaments. In 2014, they clinched the title of National U16 Championship and in 2016 they were crowned winners at the National Middle School Volleyball League.