Stage set for Asian under-20 volleyball in Bahrain

TDT | Manama                                                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The stage is set for  Bahrain to host the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship starting tomorrow at the Isa Sports City in Riffa. At least five matches a day will be held during the preliminary round at both the Bahrain Volleyball Association’s (BVA) Isa bin Rashid Volleyball Arena and the Bahrain Table Tennis Association Arena, which has been converted into a volleyball court for the tournament. Action in this opening stage will be held from tomorrow (August 22) until Wednesday, with the first matches scheduled for a 2pm start.

The final games of the day are set to begin no earlier than 7pm. All are welcome to attend. Entrance is free of charge. Bahrain open their campaign on Tuesday when they take on Hong Kong in Pool A, before facing off with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Following a rest day on Thursday, the classification games will then be held from Friday to Monday next week, which will be the last day of the championship. As part of the lead-up to the start of play, the tournament’s technical committee comprising Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and BVA officials met with members from the participating national teams to complete the final formalities.

These included the presentation of the teams’ uniforms for the competition. Bahrain’s kit features colours in white, red and gold. Officials from the AVC and BVA also conducted inspection tours of the facilities that will be hosting the championship and held a meeting. A total of 17 nations are taking part in the event. Pool B features Iran, Japan and India; Pool C insides South Korea, Qatar and Kuwait; Pool D features Thailand and the UAE; Pool E includes Iraq, Australia and Bangladesh; and Pool F comprises China, Chinese-Taipei and Pakistan. Following the preliminaries, a drawing of lots for Classification one to 12 (top two teams from each pool) will be conducted.

The teams which have already played each other in the preliminaries will not meet again in the one-to-12 classification, while the third-ranked teams of each pool will be relegated to contest the 13-to-18 classification. The last edition of the competition was held in 2018, also held in Bahrain. Iran were crowned champions after beating South Korea in the final. Bahrain had an impressive campaign, finishing ninth overall amongst the 23 participating teams. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.