AVC Women’s Continental Championship:
Iran misses out on podium but promises bright future in women’s volleyball
Iran was beaten in straight sets (25-21, 25-16, 26-24) by Japan to miss out on the bronze medal at the AVC Women’s Continental Championship in Tianjin, China, as well as a place in next year’s FIVB World Cup in the United States and Canada.
Apart from the second set, the Iranian girls, who had already made history by securing a maiden last-four spot in nine appearances in the competition, went neck and neck with No. 6 in the FIVB World Rankings and even took commanding leads at two stages in the third set before falling short by the narrowest margin.
Despite suffering straight-set defeats against two world-class sides in their final two outings, including a semifinal loss to China, which also reached the last four at July’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL), the Iranian team will still have every reason to be proud of its six-game run in Tianjin.
Sunday’s defeat saw Iran drop one spot to 38th in the World Rankings, though it will still go down as a milestone for a team that was ranked as low as 80th two years ago and only won its maiden international gold medal – since the first national team program was launched in 1963 – by claiming the CAVA Championship, which featured four Central Asian countries, last year before successfully defending its title at the expanded tournament in May.
Iranian opposite Elaheh Poursaleh, the leading scorer in the tournament prior to the final-day action, delivered yet another impressive performance with 15 points, while outside hitters Fatemeh Khalili and Ayda Valinejad contributed 11 and 10, respectively.
Japanese outside hitter Yukiko Wada finished with a game-high 19 points, with middle blocker Haruyo Shimamura (14), captain Mayu Ishikawa (11) and outside hitter Yoshino Sato (10) also reaching double figures for Japan, which found a bit of consolation after a 3-1 loss to Thailand on the preceding day had denied it a shot at the single Olympic berth up for grabs in the final.
With the VNL’s Asian trio of China, Thailand and Japan proving to be in a league of their own on the continental stage, it was always going to be a race between the likes of South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kazakhstan for the one remaining semifinal spot on offer.
Iran, meanwhile, was fancied by few fans and experts after enduring a below-par campaign at the AVC Women’s Volleyball Cup in June, settling for seventh place in the continent’s second-tier tournament.
The Iranian girls, however, had other ideas as they got off to a flying start in Pool A, fighting back to beat Chinese Taipei – runner-up at June’s event – 3-1 (16-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-14) in their opening game.
Iran fell to an expected defeat against China – the most decorated team in the competition with 13 titles – in three sets (25-14, 25-23, 25-14) in its second outing but recovered to crush Iraq 3-0 (25-4, 25-7, 25-5) in a game that lasted just over one hour at Tianjin Olympic Center Gymnasium to secure a runner-up finish in the group.
The pinnacle of Iran’s campaign was yet to come, as head coach Alireza Toloukian’s team again produced a remarkable fightback to defeat Indonesia 3-1 (19-25, 25-16, 25-12, 25-17) – avenging the four-set loss to the Southeast Asian side at the Women’s Volleyball Cup – and achieve a historic feat.
The final outcome in Tianjin was a clear indication of the significant progress made by the Iranian women in recent years. They finished 10th at the previous edition of the Asian Championship in 2023, while their best-ever result was seventh place in 2019.
With established stars such as Poursaleh and Khalili, as well as middle-blocker duo Reihaneh and Zahra Karimi, all continuing to flourish, and teen talents such as Valinejad, opposite Setayesh Hosseini and outstanding libero Negar Hashemi entering the fray, the recent campaign could only set the stage for further success for Iran’s women’s volleyball in the future.