Intense competition between China and Philippines on Sunday
Isa Town, Bahrain, June 2, 2024 – Strong teams demolished lower-ranked sides in comfortable straight sets to get their highly-anticipated campaigns off to brilliant starts in the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup for Men, which is being held at Isa Sports City Hall C from June 2 to 9.
Twelve teams are testing their mettle in this topflight competition to vie for top honor and the lone berth for the 2024 FIVB Men’s Challenger Cup in Linyi, China from July 4 to 7, which will serve as the last qualification tournament for eight qualified teams including hosts China to battle it out for a spot in the 2025 Volleyball Nations League (VNL), which will expand to 18 teams.
On Sunday, the very first day of the eight-day tournament, strong teams Pakistan, Australia, Korea and China celebrated their first victories in Bahrain. Pakistan beat Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-21), with Australia brushing off Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-17), Korea powering past Indonesia 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-9) and China overcoming Philippines 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22).
In the curtain-raisers between world No.49 Pakistan, which captured the recent CAVA Nations League title after 3-1 demolition of Turkmenistan in the final showdown on home soil in Islamabad on May 18, made a solid start in the tournament to pull off an exceptional win against world No.55 Kazakhstan in Pool B.
Pakistan, fielding a strong lineup led by Ali Usman Faryad, who landed Best Outside Hitter and MVP at the CAVA Nations League, Musawer Khan and Naveed Muhammad Kashif, the respective Best Middle Blocker and the Best Setter in the aforementioned competition, while Kazakhstan had many players from the 2023 edition back to strengthen the team including veteran Vorivodin Vitaliy.
With an outstanding performance, Pakistan triumphed in a fantastic 3-0 battle against Kazakhstan, which did not make their mark to finish a below-par 7th at the previous edition in Chinese Taipei last year and a disappointing 13th position at the Asian Senior Men’s Championship in Uremia, Iran on the same year.
Murad Khan scored a match-high 21 points from 19 kills and two blocks for Pakistan, while Vorivodin Vitaliy handed Kazakhstan 14 points including 12 kills on the team’s loss.
The second match saw world No.34 Australia prove too strong for Chinese Taipei to overpower the world No.44 in straight sets in Pool D.
Australia started solidly in the tournament, aiming…
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