Iran, Korea, Japan off to victorious starts at Asian Champs

The teams of Iran, Korea and Japan scored the first wins at the AVC Men's Volleyball Asian Championship, which also serves as a qualification tournament for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games men’s volleyball event and for the 2027 FIVB Volleyball World Cup. On Friday’s opening competition day in Fukuoka, they beat New Zealand, Chinese Taipei and Oman. The competition is streamed live and on demand on VBTV.

• Watch the AVC Men's Volleyball Asian Championship on VBTV

The biggest surprise of the day came from the evening match in Pool A, in which Oman managed to take a set away from hosts, defending champions and heavy favorites Japan. Still, the home team pocketed the three points with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-13, 20-25, 25-9) victory in front of six and a half thousand fans at the Kitakyushu City General Gymnasium. The home team outperformed their opponents on all scoring counts, most substantially in unforced errors by 15-28, and in serving aces by 11-1. Outside hitters Ran Takahashi and captain Yuki Ishikawa shared the top scorer honors with five aces towards a match-high 19 points each. Ishikawa also had a kill block to his name. Opposite Yuji Nishida contributed another 14 points. Oman’s middle blocker Osama Sulaiman Salmeen Al-Mamari matched Japanese counterpart Taishi Onodera’s four kill blocks to finish with 13 points and join outside hitter teammate Mahmood Khalifa Maayouf Al Saadi as the team’s most prolific scorers of the match. The other Omani outside – Fallah Saleem Al-Aabed Mubarak Al Jaradi – finished with 10 points, all in swings.

In the opening Pool B match on Friday, Iran allowed no surprises against New Zealand and hammered out an emphatic 3-0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-22) sweep. Iran’s opposite and captain Amin Esmaeilnezhad, who came in as a substitution during the second set, emerged as the team’s leading scorer with 11 points. He hit 10 in attack at an impressive success rate of 77% and fired one ace. In fact, as many as 33 of Iran’s 75 points came from New Zealand’s unforced errors, while the winners made only eight of those. Iran also outperformed their opponents in offense by 35-31 in spike kills, while the Kiwis outplayed their rivals by 7-3 in kill blocks and by 3-2 in aces. Their opposite Seth Dylan Grant delivered a match-high 12 points, including one ace and one kill block, while New Zealand’s outside hitter John McManaway also reached the double digits with 10 points, including two stuffs.

In Pool C, Korea managed a 3-1 (29-27, 19-25, 25-15, 25-15) win over Chinese Taipei. The winners were led by outside Subong Heo with a match-high 19 points, including one ace and one block. He spiked at a 74% success rate. Opposite Donghyeok Im put away three aces and two stuffs towards an 18-point total, while middle blocker Changseong Park shined in net defense with five of the team’s 16 kill blocks in the match. The attack was the only scoring element, in which Chinese Taipei slightly outplayed Korea (26-25 in spike kills). As many as four players reached the double digits on the Taiwanese side: outside Wen Yi-Kai with 16 points, opposite and captain Chang Yu-Sheng with 14, 22-year-old outside Liu Yu Lin with 13, and middle blocker Tsai Pei-Chang with 10.

The Asian Championship continues on Saturday, September 5, with Australia against Bahrain in Pool A at 10:00 local time (01:00 UTC), China against India in Pool B at 13:30 (04:30), and Qatar against Thailand in Pool C at 17:00 (08:00).

AVC Men's Volleyball Asian Championship: schedule and results

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