Iran secure semifinal spot in Asian Men’s U-20 Volleyball Championship
Title-hotshots Iran, Japan, Korea and hosts Indonesia emerged victorious on the action-packed Top 8 round not only to stay unbeaten in the 22nd Asian Men’s U-20 Volleyball Championship at Jawa Pos Arena and Gelora Pancasila here, but also advance to the do or die semifinals.
After the rest and recovery day on Friday, the topflight competition resumed with top eight teams testing their mettle in Pool E and Pool F and the remaining eight lower-ranked sides fighting it out in Pool G and Pool H to chase for better opportunities and better positions between 9th and 16th places of the championship, which serves as the Asia’s qualification tournament for the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U-21 World Championship, asianvolleyball.net wrote.
In the Top 8 round on Saturday, former three-time champions Japan pulled off sensational straight-set 25-14, 25-13, 25-23 victory against Saudi Arabia in Pool E at Jawa Pos Arena.
Another Pool E clash at the same venue saw in-form Indonesia continue their winning streak on home soil with dramatic 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 16-25, 25-18) win against India, silver medallists at the previous edition two years ago in Riffa, Bahrain.
However, with only top two teams from each pool booking their semifinal spots, Indonesia and Japan are uncatchable in Pool E and through to the semifinals, with the former claiming 6 points from two straight wins and the latter bagging 5 points from two wins in a row. India and Saudi Arabia had respective one point and no point following two straight losses to come in third and fourth places in Pool E.
In Pool F, reigning and seven-time winners Iran, which captured the last year’s U-21 World Championship title to their name, became the only team not dropping a set to their respective opponents in the championship. The mighty Iranians on Saturday powered past Kazakhstan in thrilling three-setter 25-21, 25-16, 25-22.
Opposite Pouya Ariakhah played a key role in helping Iran cruise past Kazakhstan, scoring a match-high 21 points from 19 kills, one block and one ace, while Opposite Ikramov Diyorbek led Kazakhstan with 18 points, all in attack.
Iran will next take on Korea in the 2022 semifinal rematch.
Korea, former six-time champions and bronze medallists in Riffa, Bahrain, flexed their muscles on Saturday to demolish former four-time winners China 3-1 (25-16, 25-20, 22-25, 25-18) in exhausting 101 minutes.
China dominated the blocking game with 12 stuffs against Korea’s 8, but the Koreans fared better in the other key elements including attacks (57 to 43), aces (6 to 2) and benefited from more opponent errors (26 to 22).
Iran led Pool F with 6 points from two straight wins without losing a set, while Korea also collected 6 points from two wins in a row to come in second position. China and Kazakhstan did not win a point from similar two losses to finish third and fourth places respectively.
Following their remarkable unbeaten runs, Iran and Korea are assured of finishing top two in Pool F and claiming their semifinal spots, while China and Kazakhstan will be relegated to classification round for 5th-8th places although they have to first take on each other.
Meanwhile, in the classification round for 9th-16th places, Kuwait downed Hong Kong, China in competitive four-setter 25-22, 18-25, 26-24, 25-22 in Pool G.
In another Pool G encounter, Australia swept Bangladesh in well-fought three sets 25-17, 31-29, 25-21.
Hong Kong China, Bangladesh, Australia and Kuwait had 3 points each from similar 1-1 win/loss record, but following the sets and points ratios, Hong Kong China stayed atop Pool G, followed by Bangladesh, Australia and Kuwait respectively.
In Pool H, Thailand, which finished a well-earned fourth place at the previous edition two years ago, tasted their first victory in Surabaya following their epic tie-break win 25-20, 25-23, 24-26, 21-25, 15-9 in a fatiguing 129-minute clash against Chinese Taipei.
The other Pool H clash saw Vietnam sweep Qatar in comfortable straight sets 25-12, 25-22, 25-14.
Vietnam led Pool H with 5 points from two straight wins, with Chinese Taipei and Thailand trailing in second and third places with 4 and 3 points respectively from similar record of one win against one loss. Qatar have yet got a point from two straight losses to come in fourth place.