Japan, Iran and Qatar climbed the medal podium at the 22nd AVC Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship, which came to a completion in Urmia on Saturday. Benefitting from Volleyball Empowerment funding, the men’s national team of Qatar achieved historic success, claiming their first-ever medal in the history of the competition.
The Qatar Volleyball Association has so far been allocated a total of CHF 108,000 as Volleyball Empowerment coach support for its men’s national team.
Unlike eight years ago, when Qatar reached the bronze medal game for the first time at the 2015 Asian Championship, also held in Iran, but lost to China in five sets to finish fourth, this time they mastered a 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-18) victory over the same opponent to make the podium.
Qatar stormed through their first four matches in Urmia without dropping a set against Afghanistan, India, Thailand and Chinese Taipei to reach the semifinals. At that stage of the tournament, they suffered their only defeat at the event, 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-14, 28-26) at the hands of champions-to-be Japan (pictured in the main photo, credits: asianvolleyball.net).
Japan mastered straight-set wins over Uzbekistan, Thailand and Bahrain on the way to the semifinals before conceding their one and only set loss of the competition, to Qatar, and moving on to produce a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-18) upset of defending champions and tournament hosts Iran in front of 8,000 spectators in Saturday’s big final.
The most decorated team in the history of the competition added the 10th continental title to its record, also featuring four silver and four bronze medals. Dethroned Iran, who defeated Iraq, Hong Kong, Pakistan and China, dropping only a set on the way to the gold medal match, had to settle for silver. They now have four golds, three silvers and one bronze in their Asian Championship collection.
Korea finished in fifth place, followed by Chinese Taipei, Pakistan, Bahrain, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Uzbekistan, in that order, down the final standings table of the championship.
Japan’s Yuki Ishikawa was named Most Valuable Player (MVP), while setter Mohammad Taher Vadi (Iran), opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad (Iran), outside hitters Ran Takahashi (Japan) and Raimi Wadidie (Qatar), middle blockers Belal Nabel Abunabot (Qatar) and Taishi Onodera (Japan), and libero Yang Yiming (China) were recognised as the tournament’s Dream Team.
