DAY 2 WRAP UP
Tehran, Iran, August 16, 2022 – Defending and successive two-time champions Japan from Pool B and hosts Iran from Pool A stamped their authority on Day 2 of the 14th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship, with the former overcoming Korea in epic tiebreaker and the latter annihilating China in thrilling three-setter in the pool round-robin preliminaries at the Federation Hall on Tuesday.
After two days into the pool plays, Japan sealed two wins on the trot to stay atop Pool B. Having a rest day on the opening day, Iran bagged their first win to move to the top of Pool A.
On Tuesday, Japan, which saw off Korea 3-1 in the 2018 final showdown, made a fantastic comeback to beat the tough oppositions in epic tie-breaker 21-25, 25-18, 25-14, 15-25, 15-13 to stretch their victory in this top-flight championship to two in a row.
Hiroki Bito became the star of the team as he registered an incredible match-high 37 points including 35 attacks for Japan, while Lee Woojin scored a team-high 20 points on the Korea’s losing effort.
Hiroshi Honda, head coach of Japan, said after the match, “Japanese players have played 10 sets in two days, and the fatigue caused by these two games had an effect on the team. Overall, we had a good performance against Korea and won”.
Hiroki Bito, who led all scorers, said about the game, “We started the match well, but Korea controlled the game in the second and third sets with their good serves, but in the end we won.”
In other Pool B encounters, India, which had already succumbed to their first defeat at the hands of Japan in the previous match on Monday, beat Thailand 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 27-25, 25-23). India are due to next face off with the Koreans on Thursday after a day’s rest on Wednesday, while Thailand will go up against Japan on Wednesday in their final match of the pool preliminaries.
Ariyan Mahmoudi Nejad emerged as the top scorer with well-earned 21 points for India including 19 attacks, while Samphan Laklai contributed 20 points for Thailand.
Khjhornsak Manapornchai, head coach of Thailand, said, “It was a very good game and the quality and level of the two teams were close. Some of my players are under 16 years old and are too young even for this age group. Our goal is to gain experience for future competitions”.
Hosts Iran blitzed China 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-22) to hand the aspiring opponents first loss in the eight-day championship. The host side are due to take on Kuwait on Wednesday…
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