Japan stamped their supremacy in Asian volleyball by defeating the hosts and defending champions Iran by 3 sets to 1 (25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22) in a dramatic final.
China beat Qatar by 3 sets to 2 (25-23, 25-19, 21-25, 24-26, 15-9) to claim 3rd position. The 18th Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship which was held in Tehran, Iran was brought to a conclusion on the 09th of August.
The Sri Lankan National Volleyball team who participated in the tournament for the 10th time was placed 13th among the 16 countries. They were placed 15th in the 2013 Championship.
Sri Lankan team played 7 matches of which they were able to secure wins against 3 countries: Turkmenistan, Oman and Kuwait. They were defeated by China, Japan, Bahrain and India.
Sri Lanka lost all their preliminary group stage matches to Japan, Bahrain and China; winning only one set against world rank 21, Japan.
Thereafter on the performance of the group stage Sri Lanka were drawn in Pool H in the classification round to fight for 9th-16th places. Sri Lanka could only win against Turkmenistan, hence had to play for the 13th-16th places.
In the 13th place semifinal Sri Lanka defeated Oman in 4 sets (25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 25-14) and in the 13th place final defeated Kuwait 26-28, 17-25, 14-25.
The head coach of team, Kumara Wendakoon Sri Lanka speaking to ThePapare.com said that he is very disappointed about the loss against India.
“It was very hard to receive the passes of experienced teams such as Japan and China because they are very fast.” He added that the Sri Lankan team does not have much experience in the international arena: the team was facing an international competition after about two years.
“We didn’t achieve a great result here, but it is good in comparison with the other teams at our level. As a coach, I’m not happy with the result because we should have fared much better than this. I have come to Iran for several times with different teams. It is a beautiful country with hospitality and friendly people. We didn’t have any problem while staying in Tehran and I would like to thank the Iranian Volleyball Federation. In July, we will be playing in another tournament with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and some other teams. It has been regarded as one of the most important tournaments for us.”
Furthermore the Sri Lankan team has qualified for the SAAF Games which will be held in Kerala, India next January. The National Selection Committee is unsure as to whether they will pick a different squad for the SAAF games or not. A decision regarding this is expected to be made at a committee meeting to be held on the 1st of September.
Photo Courtesy – asianvolleyball.net
