All eighthfinalists at U19 World Championship now known
Iran’s Morteza Narimani in offence
With one competition day in the pool stage of the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship remaining, all 16 eighthfinalists have now emerged. Bulgaria, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Serbia and Slovenia booked the remaining six vacancies on Saturday, while the teams of Chile, Costa Rica and India will continue in the matches for the distribution of the places from 17th to 19th in the final standings.
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Iran, the world’s number two U19 team, added yet another straight-set victory to their winning streak and topped the final Pool C standings on an impeccable record, without a single set lost. On Saturday, they mastered a 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-16) shutout of Colombia to finish the pool stage on a 4-0 win-loss record and 12-0 in sets (an awarded win against withdrawn Nigeria included).
Iran clearly dominated on the court for most of the duration of the game against Colombia and outplayed the opponents on all point-scoring counts: 37 to 25 in successful spikes, 13 to nine in kill blocks, five to one in serving aces and 16 to 20 in unforced errors.
Their outside hitter Morteza Narimani delivered the match high of 17 points, including a block and as many as four aces. His teammate Abolfazi Mahdian added another 15 points, including three blocks, while middle Armin Ghelichniazi impressed with five kill blocks towards a seven-point tally. Sub-in Matin Hosseini Tolouti hammered the match winner. Outside Juan Felipe Velasco Valderruten was Colombia’s top scorer with 11 points to his name.
Korea finished pool runners-up on a 3-1 win-loss record, while Colombia and Puerto Rico, on 1-2 each, will go head to head on Sunday in a battle for the third place in the pool.
USA’s Finn Kearney attacks
With a game to play in Pool A, United States are also on a perfect record of three wins and 9-0 in sets. On Saturday, they produced a 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-20) shutout of the other unbeaten team in the pool, hosts Argentina, to take over the top of the table. Sterling Foley and captain Sean Kelly led the way with 18 and 16 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Egypt…
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