FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship:
Iran edges Poland in five-set thriller
Iranian boys held out a fightback by Poland to beat the European opponent 3-2 (25-22, 25-14, 17-25, 14-25, 15-13) in Pool C of the FIVB U19 World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
This was a first victory for Iran – runner-up to France in the previous edition in 2023 – at this year’s event following a shock five-set setback against Spain on the preceding day in the Uzbek capital.
Opposite-spiker Amir Naderi chipped in a game-high 23 points for Iran, which was playing without Mahan Barzkar after the prolific outside-hitter suffered an injury in the fifth set against Spain to miss the rest of the tournament.
Four other Iranians also finished in double figures on Friday, as Mohammad-Amin Rahimi contributed 14 points, with Nima Bateni, Seyyed Hossein Zamani, and Armin Asiaei scoring 10 apiece.
Opposite Maksymilian Łysoń and outside-hitter Oskar Trawka were the joint-top scorers for Poland, which had edged out Italy in five sets in their opening game, with 16 points while Jakub Szczurowski finished on 10.
Chasing a third world under-19 title, and first since 2017, Iran will take on Tunisia today, before squaring off against Egypt (Monday) and Italy (Tuesday) in the pool phase.
The top four in each of the three six-team groups will progress to the round of 16.
Elsewhere on Friday, defending champion France celebrated a second win in Pool B by easing past Algeria in straight sets (25-16, 25-14, 25-14), while Belgium recovered from a first-day setback against Pakistan to defeat Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-16) in Pool A.