Korea beat Thailand 3-1 to complete the podium
Jiangmen, China, July 9, 2024 – China were crowned champions of the 22nd Asian Women’s U20 Volleyball Championship following epic tie-break win against reigning and consecutive two-time champions Japan in the highly-anticipated final showdown at the Jiangmen Sports Center Gymnasium here on Tuesday night.
The Chinese turned the electric atmosphere of the gymnasium into one of the absolute joy with the dramatic 3-2 (23-25, 25-21, 25-17, 14-25, 15-10) victory against Japan in the gold medal match of the 22nd edition of the championship that handed the host nation the 13th title with remarkable unbeaten record and made the home crowd of approximately 4,000 inside the competition site erupted in celebration.
With the 13th title achieved on Tuesday night, China had already captured titles in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2024. Furthermore, the Chinese have already faced off against Japan in 13 finals of this topflight championship and clinched eight titles, leaving Japan to take the remaining five.
The China’s win was also a sweet revenge for their loss two times in succession to Japan in the previous two editions. In 2018 in Bac Ninh, Vietnam, China lost to Japan in straight sets in the final clash and again at the 2022 edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, they went down in another straight sets to Japan in the upset showdown.
In the Wednesday’s clash, outside hitter Dong Yuhan delivered 20 points from 13 kills, 3 blocks and 4 aces for China, while fellow outside hitter Li Chenxuan and opposite and skipper Wang Yindi added 16 and 12 points respectively. Outside hitter Miku Akimoto scored a match-high 26 points from 25 kills and one ace on the Japan’s loss. Another two outside hitters Anna Uemura and Sae Omuri contributed 15 and 12 points respectively.
The Chinese dominated the blocking game, getting 14 stuffs to Japan’s six and did a very good job of leading their opponents in aces (10 to 2), beside benefitted from more opponent errors (22 to 20). Japan fared better in kills (70 to 56).
The nine-day championship served as the Asian qualification tournament for the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s U21 World Championship. As China, current world champions, have automatically qualified, the remaining top four teams in Jiangmen – Japan (second place), Korea (third place), Thailand (fourth place) and Vietnam (fifth place) will also qualify for the next…
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