The 1st Asian Men’s U16 Volleyball Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan has reached its climax, with the best two teams from each pool through to Top 8 and in contention for the top-three finish which will seal their places in the next year’s inaugural FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship.
The pool round-robin preliminaries came to a conclusion on Monday when top two teams from Pools A, B, C and D made the cut for the Top 8, split to Pool E (for teams from Pools A and C) and Pool F (for teams from Pools B and D). After that, teams will play cross matches to determine the best two teams from Pools E and F to qualify for the 1-4 semifinals, with teams finishing third and fourth places in each pool relegated to Classification Round for ranking 5-8.
Meanwhile, the lower-ranked teams finishing third in Pools A, C and D and fourth in Pool C will next play a single round-robin competition. Teams which have already met in the pool round-robin preliminaries will not play again, but their results in the pool play will be taken into consideration for ranking 9-12.
On Monday, the last day for the pool round-robin preliminaries, hosts Uzbekistan, Thailand, Japan, Iran and Pakistan pulled out of sensational wins against respective rivals in their pools.
In Pool D at the JAR Hall, Pakistan, which had beaten Chinese Taipei in straight sets earlier, had a field day with comfortable straight-set 25-9, 25-17, 25-13 win against Mongolia. In this match, Pakistan fared much better in attack and service, scoring 41 points through their powerful attacks (Mongolia 8) and 11 aces (Mongolia 2).
Yahya Muhammad chipped in with 16 points from 8 attacks and another 8 through ace serves for Pakistan. No Mongolian player scored double digits, with Munkbat Munkh-Erdene winning 6 points on the team’s loss.
At the Yunusobod Sports Complex Hall, Thailand made a strong start in the championship with thrilling 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 25-15) win against Australia in Pool B. Due to the late withdrawal of Bahrain and India, Pool B featured only Thailand and Australia and as a result, both of them finished top two in the Pool and automatically qualified for the next round.
Captain Sorasak Phunsanong delivered 13 points for Thailand, while Nakarin Paeprakhon and Rungwikai Walaijai kept good company to add 10 and 8 points respectively. Tom Bergemann and Hayden Baker scored respective 15 and 13 points on the Australia’s losing effort.
In Pool C, China, which suffered their…
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