Qatar wrapped up the preliminary round with a win and topped the Pool B ahead of world-ranked 13th Australia at the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship, ongoing in Tehran, Iran.
At the Azadi Volleyball Hall on Sunday, the Qatari spikers suffered a minor momentum lapse but regrouped well to beat Turkmenistan easily 25-14 26-28 25-13 25-20 for their third victory in row. The result helped Qatar gain the No 1 spot in the group.
Qatar Team Manager Mohamed Jassim al Kuwari said: “We’re pleased with our preliminary stage performance which helped us top the pool. Today we used our reserve players. We started well but Turkmenistan were able to take a set off us.
“We immediately stepped up the pressure and clinched the match inside four sets. Now, we’re in the second stage and will play against Japan and China. The results in these matches will determine the rankings in the Group F before getting to know about our quarter-final rivals.
“Indeed, topping the pool against World League team like Australia and higher-ranked India is a good omen. It shows that we’ve improved a great deal and other teams, including Australia, China, Iran and India, are really surprised with our progress,” he added.
Australia grabbed the second spot behind Qatar as they downed India 25-19 25-19 25-16. This was the second triumph for the Aussies.
Along with Qatar, the team from the Down Under advanced to the second stage, where they will face the top two teams from the Group D – China and Japan – to determine the rankings in the Pool F before the quarter-final clashes.
The other two teams of the Pool B – India and Turkmenistan – will now battle for the places between 9 to 16.
Qatar, despite using second string, were off to a flying start and clinched the opening set at 14. But Turkmenistan rallied and pulled off a set. The winners quickly responded to the wake-up call and lifted their level to clinch the next two sets to maintain their pool dominance.
Kuwari also credited Argentine coach Juan Manuel Cichello and players for the team’s early exciting form. “The coach has been working hard with the team for two years. We’re trying to play a new kind of volleyball in which there are minimum mistakes. We defeated all the three teams in the pool, including strong Australia and India, and headed the group, which is a big step forward for us.
“Our next matches are against Japan and China on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Both are traditionally strong sides. Till now, our reception and defence have been superb and we have followed it with some quick attacks. We’re mixing our resources well.
“The next matches are not only going to be crucial but difficult also. If we can keep up our technical levels just as we’ve done in the first two matches, anything is possible at this stage.
“Japan are strong but they have some weaknesses as well. They lost to China in four sets and they had some problems against Bahrain too. In the last match today, they needed four sets to beat Sri Lanka. We’ll go all out and play our best to exploit them,” Kuwari added.
In other matches of the day, Kazakhstan beat Kuwait 25-17, 25-16 25-19, Iran got past Chinese Taipei 25-16 25-16 25-19, South Korea downed Pakistan 25-21 25-17 25-17, Thailand required five sets to pip Oman 25-27 25-20 23-25 25-11 15-10, China disposed of Bahrain 25-18 25-23 25-21 and Japan edged Sri Lanka 16-25 25-21 25-16 25-20.
Day three results
Kazakhstan beat Kuwait 25-17, 25-16 25-19
Iran beat Chinese Taipei 25-16 25-16 25-19
South Korea beat Pakistan 25-21 25-17 25-17
Thailand beat Oman 25-27 25-20 23-25 25-11 15-10
China beat Bahrain 25-18 25-23 25-21
Japan beat Sri Lanka 16-25 25-21 25-16 25-20.
Top eight qualifiers
Pool E
Rank Team W L Pts PW PL PR SW SL SR
1 Iran 0 0 0 0 0 MAX 0 0 MAX
2 South Korea 1 0 2 111 107 1.037 3 2 1.500
3 Thailand 0 1 1 107 111 0.964 2 3 0.667
4 Chn Taipei 0 0 0 0 0 MAX 0 0 MAX
Pool E fixtures
Aug 3: Iran vs Thailand (13:00)
Aug 3: South Korea vs Chinese Taipei (15:00)
Aug 4: Chinese Taipei vs Thailand (13:00)
Aug 4: Iran vs South Korea (15:00)
Pool F
Rank Team W L Pts PW PL PR SW SL SR
1 China 1 0 3 98 84 1.167 3 1 3.000
2 Qatar 1 0 3 103 94 1.096 3 1 3.000
3 Australia 0 1 0 94 103 0.913 1 3 0.333
4 Japan 0 1 0 84 98 0.857 1 3 0.333
Pool F fixtures
Aug 3: Qatar vs Japan (17:00)
Aug 3: China vs Australia (19:00)
Aug 4: Australia vs Japan (17:00)
Aug 4: Qatar vs China (19:00)
Keys: TR team ranking, P played, W won, L lost, Pts points, PW points won, PL points lost, PR points ratio, SW sets won, SL sets lost, SR sets ratio
