CAVA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL CHALLENGE CUP TO GET UNDERWAY IN NEPAL ON MAY 22

All is set for the CAVA (Central Asian Volleyball Association) Women’s Challenge Cup, which is due to be held at the NSC Covered Hall in Kathmandu, Nepal between May 22 and 28, with eight teams striving for their success in the one-week competition.

Hosts Nepal are in Pool A along with India, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, while Pool B features Sri Lanka, Maldives, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan. Teams will contest the pool round-robin preliminaries, with top two teams from each pool advancing to the semifinals. Lower-ranked teams finishing 3rd and 4th places in each pool will be relegated to classification round for 5th-8th places.

On May 22, the opening day of the tournament, Uzbekistan will take on Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will test their mettle with India, followed by the opening ceremony. After that, hosts Nepal, two-time AVC Central Zone Championship in 2019 and 2021, will play Kyrgyzstan in the curtain-raiser and Maldives will challenge Kazakhstan.

Nepal Volleyball Association President Mr Jitendra Chand said recently that the association was committed in providing the participating teams and delegations with top class hospitality.

“We know we don’t have world-class covered hall for the tournament. The CAVA members also know the fact. But we can win their hearts with top-class hospitality and we will not leave any stone unturned in that aspect,” he said.

“We have decorated the NSC Covered Hall as per our capacity and I am grateful to all the sponsors and partners for their generous support to make it a grand success,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan became the first team to reach Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on May 19 and was welcomed by NVA Secretary General Roshan Shrestha. Their flight was supposed to land at 7pm local time, but due to the bad weather, the flight was diverted to New Delhi and landed in Kathmandu at 2am on Saturday morning.