Hangzhou, China, September 30, 2023 – Strong teams proved superiority over minnows to brush off lower-ranked sides with convincing wins on the opening day of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Women’s Volleyball Competition on Saturday.
The pool round-robin preliminaries of the one-week-long topflight competition in the continental multi-sports extravaganza commenced on Saturday at Deqing Sports Center Gymnasium and Hangzhou Normal University Cangqian Gymnasium. Japan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei pulled off comfortable straight-set victories over their respective opponents, while DPR Korea shrugged off rust to beat India in dramatic four-setter.
At Deqing Sports Center Gymnasium on Saturday, DPR Korea, which finished fourth place at the previous five Asian Games they took part in including the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China, kicked off their campaign in the Hangzhou Asian Games with comeback 3-1 win against India in their Pool A opener.
Going down in a closely-contested first set 23-25, the North Koreans clawed their way back into game to win the remaining three sets 25-22, 25-17, 25-16.
Outside hitter Kim Hyonju was unstoppable and became the match’s top scorer with a massive 30 points from 27 kills, one block and 2 aces. Choe Pokhyang also played a vital part of the DPR Korea’s victory, producing 19 points from 15 attacks, 2 blocks and 2 aces. Middle blocker Soorya scored 18 points including 14 attacks from 24 attempts and 3 blocks in the India’s loss.
India dominated the blocking game, getting 9 stuffs to DPR Korea’ 6, but the North Koreans did a very good job of leading their opponents in kills (67 to 53) and aces (8 to 2) aside from benefiting from more opponent errors (17 to 16).
A daunting task awaits India on Sunday when they next go up against reigning champions and world No.6 China, which captured gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro 2006 Olympic Games to their name, while DPR Korea will have a rest day.
In the second match, AVC Challenge Cup winners and world No. 39 Vietnam faced no difficulty in shutting out Nepal in a totally one-sided battle 3-0 (25-4, 25-16, 25-13) to celebrate their first win in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Vietnam, current world No.39, fielded a strong lineup led by star spiker Tran Thi Thanh Thuy who won the MVP award at the 2023 AVC Challenge Cup in Indonesia, and after winning the opening set with ease 25-4, Vietnam replaced their best players including Tran Thi Thanh Thuy with…
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