The 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship, featuring 17 of the continent’s top teams, will get underway on Monday with a match between defending champions Iran and Japan at the 7,000-seat Isa Sports City arena in Riffa.
This is the second consecutive time – and third, overall – that the tournament, which is held every two years, will be hosted by Bahrain. The 2018 edition was held in the kingdom as well, with the 2020 edition, which was due to be held in Tehran, Iran, being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Slotted in Pool A, Bahrain will play their first match on Tuesday against Hong Kong, before taking on Saudi Arabia, the third team in the group, later in the week.
Iran, who won their sixth title in 2018, have been drawn in Pool B, along with Japan and India.
South Korea, Qatar and Kuwait have been placed in Pool C, while Pool D consists of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Thailand. Kazakhstan had been placed in Pool D too, but withdrew from the tournament.
Pool E features Iraq, Australia and Bangladesh, while Pool F will see China, Chinese Taipei and Pakistan competing against each other.
The top two teams from each group will progress to the next round, with the remaining teams relegated to classification games.
The tournament was first held in 1980. South Korea, who clinched the trophy in that inaugural championship, are level, in the most title wins, with Iran at six each. China have won the trophy four times, while Japan did so on three occasions.
Bahrain’s best showing came in the 2014 edition, which was also held in the kingdom, when they finished fourth – their only first-four finish thus far.
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