Hosts Bahrain outplayed Saudi Arabia 3-1 (16-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-20) in the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship, being held at Isa Sports City in Riffa.
The win earned the nationals first place in Pool A of the competition’s preliminary round, and they will now take on a second-ranked opponent from this stage.
Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) vice-president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, General Sports Authority CEO Dr Abdulrahman Askar and BOC secretary general Faris Al Kooheji were in attendance for Bahrain’s game.
The top two teams from each of the six groups in the preliminaries moved forward to the round of 12, where they will play head-to-head matches following a draw, while the remaining squads will compete in the classification round for places 13 to 17.
Joining the hosts in the round of 12 are Saudi from Pool A; Iran and India from Pool B; South Korea and Qatar from Pool C; Thailand and UAE from Pool D; Bangladesh and Iraq from Pool E; and China and Pakistan from Pool F.
Set to play in the 13-to-17 classification are Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Australia and Chinese-Taipei.
Thursday is a rest day and the next stage begins on Friday (Editor’s note: August 26). The match-ups in the ensuing stage will be announced by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC).
Bahrain head coach Sabeur Abddulwahed commented after the game: “We are always happy with a win. Today, it was a hard match. We had a difficult start, but step by step we began to get our confidence.
“We pushed hard to win this game. This was very important and we explained this to our players. Now we are waiting for which team we will play.”
Meanwhile, defending champions Iran wrapped up their preliminary round campaign with a comfortable 3-0 (25-20, 25-10, 25-19) victory over India. The Iranians were dominant in the contest as they secured first place in Pool B. Despite the loss, India join Iran in the round of 12.
Amir Mohammad Golzadeh was the top scorer for Iran with 19 points, while teammate Pouria Hooseinkhanzadeh added 18 markers.
Qatar fought back from a set down to defeat Kuwait 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-8) in a tight Pool C encounter between two Gulf sides. The win earned the Qataris the second seat in the next stage from their group, joining top-ranked squad South Korea who won both their matches.
Qatar’s Mehdi Salah and Kuwait’s Nawaf Alsanea were the leading scorers for their teams, after each finishing with 19 points.
Also victorious over five sets were Australia, but it wasn’t enough to get them into the round of 12. Needing to battle from behind twice in the contest, the Aussies’ 3-2 (29-31, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 15-11) result against Bangladesh meant they only came away with two of the maximum three points, which put them in last place in Pool E.
Bangladesh topped the group after taking a point from the five-set loss to finish with four, just ahead of Iraq who have three and also advance to the top 12.
Kaia Clarkin was the top scorer of the contest for Australia with 24 points.
In Pool F, Pakistan roared back from a two-set deficit to defeat Chinese-Taipei and secure their place in the round of 12. The Pakistanis went the maximum to eke out the 3-2 (20-25, 17-25, 25-19, 25-17, 15-11) result and now join China from their group who are through to the round of 12.
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