Hangzhou, China, October 4, 2023 – China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan remained intact after dismissing their respective opponents to secure semifinal berths ahead of their last Top 8 matchups on Thursday in the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Women’s Volleyball Competition.
Following the conclusion of pool round-robin preliminaries on Monday, teams had been split into two groups with the first group finishing Top 2 from each pool to contest the Elite 8 round in Pool E (A1, A2, C1, C2) and Pool F (B1, B2, D1, D2). The second group featured lower-ranked teams finishing 3rd and 4th places from each pool to next compete in the Classification Round for ranking 9-13 in Pool G (A3, C3) and H (B3, D3, D4).
On Wednesday, at Hangzhou Normal University Cangqian Gymnasium, India routed Nepal 3-1 in Pool G, while Vietnam powered past DPR Korea 3-1 and China faced no issue in shutting out Korea 3-0 in Pool E. At Deqing Sports Center Gymnasium, Hong Kong, China beat Mongolia 3-1 in Pool H, while Thailand demolished Kazakhstan 3-0 and Japan downed Chinese Taipei 3-1 in Pool F.
China and Vietnam have yet lost a match and are due to challenge each other in their last Top 8 encounter in Pool E. As a result, both sides are assured of making the semifinals, with the Thursday’s clash among them to determine the Pool E winners. By the same token, Thailand and Japan remained unbeaten in Pool F and with the last Top 8 match among them to decide the Pool F winners on Thursday, both teams are also guaranteed to seal semifinal spots.
China, current world No.6, defending champions and silver medallists at the 2023 VNL, underlined their billing as hot favorites for the Asian Games title. On Wednesday, the host side fielded the same roster as the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification Tournament including left-hander Li Yingying, tall and towering Yuan Xinyue, 202cm, and veteran setter Ding Xia to crush Korea in lopsided battle 25-12, 25-21, 25-16.
China took total control in the first set to lead by wide margin 24-12 and middle blocker Wang Yuanyuan hammered an overpass killer in the last point to hand the host team the set win 25-12.
Conceding one set, Korea tried hard for a comeback. Their true intention came within a whisker of winning the second set when they led all the way till the Chinese side, boosted by cheering home fans packing the gymnasium, leveled it at 20-20 and wen on their fine form to surge ahead 23-21. Sub-in Wu Menjie, who landed Best Outside Spiker…
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