Asian Youth Games:
Iranian boys, girls march into volleyball finals
Iran will chase double volleyball golds at the Asian Youth Games today, after the country’s boys’ and girls’ teams claimed last-four victories in Bahrain on Monday.
Iranian under-18 team came from behind to overcome the Philippines 3-1 (26-28, 25-18, 25-19, 25-18) in the girls’ semifinals and secure a sixth consecutive victory in Isa Sports City.
Standing between the Iranian girls and the ultimate prize in today’s final is Indonesia, which overcame Thailand in straight sets (26-24, 27-25, 25-17) in the other semifinal.
“The players felt a lot of pressure against the Philippines, but they managed it extremely well,” Iran head coach Lee Do-hee said after the game, adding: “The players’ mindset varies at each stage of the tournament. We were very concerned that the pressure of this match would get the better of them and that’s what happened in the first set – they were clearly nervous – but they did a great job to overcome it as the game wore on.”
On the prospect of a historic continental gold medal for Iranian women’s volleyball, Lee said: “This is the best opportunity for us, and we will give everything we have to deliver a great performance.
“We’ve already beaten Indonesia 3-0 in this tournament, but after watching them against Thailand I realized that they have improved since our previous encounter. We won’t underestimate them,” added the South Korean coach, who also led the Iranian senior team to a maiden international glory at the CAVA Women’s Championship earlier in October.
In the boys’ competition, Iran eased past Thailand in three sets (25-10, 25-21, 25-14) to set a final date with Pakistan.
Pakistan rallied from behind to beat Indonesia 3-1 (22-25, 25-13, 25-19, 26-24) later on Monday.
“I congratulate all the players and their families. However, I believe we haven’t accomplished anything yet. The real task is the final,” Iran coach Adel Gholami said.
“Pakistan is one of the strongest teams in this age group. They even lost to Poland [in the last 16] at the U19 World Championship due to a few marginal errors. Had they not lost that game, they would have definitely gone all the way to reach the final,” added Gholami, who steered Iran to a fourth-place finish in the under-19 world event in August.
“It will be tough game against them. We should forget all about today’s victory and get ready for the final,” Gholami said.
Swimming history
Elsewhere in the Games on Monday, Mohammad-Mahdi Gholami captured Iran’s first-ever swimming gold at an international event.
Gholami, 16, clocked 54.75 seconds in the final to beat Filipino swimmer Jamesray Ajido (55.11) and Hong Kong’s Lau Kin Hei James (55.23) to the top prize in the boys’ 100m butterfly event.
In the women’s 3x3 basketball event, the Iranian girls suffered a 15-14 heartbreak against Chinese Taipei in the final and settled for silver.
The two sides were tied 13-13 at the end of regulation before Chinese Taipei prevailed in overtime.
In the women’s futsal, however, Iran pulled off a shootout victory over Chinese Taipei to progress to the final.
Elnaz Hosseinpour gave Iran an early lead but Hou Yu-xuan and Ku Hsuan found the net in less than a minute to turn the game on its head in the first half.
Narges Amirmohseni found the equalizer with less than two minutes into the second half as it finished 2-2 before Iran won 3-1 on penalties.