Bahrain barged into the Round of 16 in the 19th Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship following a hard-earned victory yesterday over spirited Malaysia.
The hosts recovered from a poor start to rally for a 3-1 (25-27, 25-20, 25-10, 25-21) triumph and book their tickets to the next knockout stage, much to the delight of the massive home crowd at Isa Sports City in Riffa.
Also advancing with big wins were Taipei, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Qatar.
Taipei defeated New Zealand, Pakistan outplayed Jordan, India beat Hong Kong, Iraq swept Macau, Saudi Arabia ousted the UAE, and Kazakhstan disposed of the Maldives. Qatar, meanwhile, literally didn’t break a sweat in their win by default over already withdrawn Uzbekistan.
Each of the winners will be in action again today where they will take on the teams ranked first through eighth from the Preliminary Round.
Bahrain face off with eighth-ranked Australia in the Round of 16. A win for the nationals would put them through to the Quarter-Finals.
Top-ranked Iran face India, number two Korea play Pakistan, third seeds China face Saudi Arabia, number four Japan go against Taipei, fifth-ranked Thailand take on Qatar, sixth seeds Turkmenistan face Iraq, and number seven Sri Lanka battle Kazakhstan.
All the winners from today’s fixtures will advance to the Quarter-Finals, while the losers play in the losers’ bracket for final classification.
This year’s Asian U20 Championship is following a new competition format for the first time. The tournament has been organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation in cooperation with the Bahrain Volleyball Association. It is being held under the patronage of His Majesty the King’s Charity Works and Youth Affairs representative, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Heading into Bahrain’s match with Malaysia, the hosts were the favourites after easily winning both their Preliminary Round games and due to their higher ranking over their opponents. But at the start, they appeared uneasy and lost several points on serve while committing way too many unforced errors.
After going down by as many as five, they only managed to come back late in the set and tie things at 21-apiece. Their mistakes caught up with them, however, and they allowed the Malaysians to grab a surprise 1-0 advantage.
Momentum
The Bahrainis settled in the second set, making less mistakes despite trailing once again. They broke a 14-all deadlock with three straight points, and rode their momentum until the end, capping with an ace to level things at a set apiece.
After cruising in a one-sided third set, the nationals did just enough in the fourth to finally close things out, and they ended things in style with a brilliantly hit Huisain Thamer ace.
“After the first set we just needed to return our concentration and gain more confidence,” said Bahrain head coach Yusuf Khalifa. “Our players maybe felt some pressure early on, and Malaysia have become stronger and stronger in the tournament.
Mahmood Salman was the top scorer for Bahrain, finishing with 14 points overall, including 11 in attack.
Matches today in the Round of 16 begin at 11.30am and continue well into the evening. All are welcome to attend. Entrance for spectators is free.
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