Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, August 6, 2022 – As implementing and maintaining strict protocols to reduce COVID-19 exposure continues to be a top priority for the staging of the 2022 AVC Cup for Men, the Control Committee and the local organisers decided not to conduct the General Technical Meeting and the Official Press Conference and as a result, brief interviews with coaches had been made during the Friday’s preliminary inquiry at Mida Grande Hotel Dhavaravati Nakhon Pathom.
A total of 11 teams will test their mettle in the topflight AVC Cup for Men at the 4,000-seater Nakhon Pathom Provincial Gymnasium here from August 7 to 14. They consist of Japan, Hong Kong China, China, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Iran, Australia, Pakistan, Bahrain, India and hosts Thailand.
After respectively undergoing preliminary inquiries with Control Committee, chaired by Dr Eom Han Joo from Korea, himself Chairman of the AVC Sports Events Council, teams later heard the referee briefings conducted by Referee Delegate Mr Songsak Chareonpong, Chairman of the AVC Referees Committee. Coaches also had chances to share expectations with their teams for the eight-day tournament.
Mr Monchai Supajirakul – head coach of Thailand
“Our training in preparation for this tournament is not that long because most of my players had just completed their campaigns in the Thailand Division A Tournament and Asean University Games Volleyball Tournament. They are young stars from Thailand League. My expectation is that my team will have to beat Hong Kong, China in order that we can next contest the round of last eight teams. However, with the presence of strong teams, our hopes cannot be that high. It’s likely that my team will compete in the classification round for 7th-8th places and if Pakistan is also advancing to that round, we will then have a chance to play a revenge match against them. Today (August 5), we had a friendly match against Iran and went down to them in close four sets.”
Mr David Preston – head coach of Australia
“Our team preparation for this tournament started in June. We had an opportunity to play in VNL and gained a lot of experience there. We also had the Challenger Cup last week in Korea. Our preparation is pretty good. Actually, we came to Thailand a bit early. We are a very young team, still learning. We try to find ourselves, to find the level. The teams in this tournament are very, very good. So, what we had expected is that we had a lot to do with the results...
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