Asian Youth Games:
Iranian girls rout Hong Kong, head into volleyball last four
Iran secured a place in the girls’ volleyball semifinals at the Asian Youth Games in Bahrain thanks to a straight-set victory (25-14, 25-13, 25-18) over Hong Kong on Sunday.
This was Iran’s fifth consecutive win at the multi-sport event.
The Iranian under-18 side defeated Qatar and the host country, both in straight sets, in the preliminary round before overcoming the Chinese Taipei (3-1) and Indonesia (3-0) in the 1-8 classification group phase.
Elsewhere in the Games on Sunday, Amirreza Azari contributed 10 points the Iranian 3x3 basketball team beat Kazakhstan 21-6 to seal a spot in the boys’ quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Iranians collected three bronze medals in the muaythai contests.
Sevda Aqaei scored 8.16 points to finish third in the girls’ wai kru 14-15 final.
Amirabbas Saghari also finished with the bronze in the boys’ wai kru 14-15 category, courtesy of 8.40-point performance in the final, while Taha Sharifi tallied 8.20 points for a joint bronze in the 16-17 category.
On Saturday, Iranian U17 boys hammered Saudi Arabia 14-0 to progress to the futsal semifinals with one game to spare in the group stage.
Hosseinreza Yousefi stole the show with six goals, with Ali Ahmadi and Mohammad Karami contributing with two goals apiece, as Mohammad Sanei’s team celebrated a second successive Group B win at the Khalifa Sports City Hall – following Friday’s 5-1 victory over Kyrgyzstan.