Historic first U17 boys’ world crown goes to Italy in nail-biting drama

Italy triumphed as the first ever U17 boys’ volleyball world champions. In Saturday’s final of the inaugural FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship in Sofia, they earned the historic trophy with a phenomenal comeback from two sets down against Argentina and after denying several opponent match points in the fourth. Chinese Taipei also made the podium as bronze medallists.

• Watch FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship replays free of charge on VBTV

Italy return from beyond to snatch the crown

In a thrilling final, fit for the historic occasion, Italy mounted a furious comeback from two sets down to emerge triumphant with a 3-2 (23-25, 17-25, 25-22, 33-31, 15-9) victory over Argentina. After losing the first two sets, the European team managed to win the third, but in the fourth, the South Americans regained control and opened a four-point gap. The Italians did not give up and caught up with their opponents, who still managed to reach first match point at 24-23. Italy denied them six of those, wasting two set points of their own in the process, before finally taking the nail-biting set at 33-31. Riding the momentum, the European side cruised on to the victory, led by opposite Federico Argano with 29 points and outside hitter and captain Manuel Zlatanov with 28, including the block-out swing for the match winner.

Outside Federico Debonis was Argentina’s most prolific player with 23 points. His cross-court teammate Tomas Omarini added another 18, while opposite and captain Henry Sinner finished with 13. Middle blocker Ivan Pavon raised as many as five stuffs to reach the double digits with a total of 11 points.

“In the first set, we started so slow, but from the second and the third, step by step, point by point, we got to the glory,” Italy’s Federico Argano told the FIVB. “It was an incredible mega victory! After the second set, Zlatanov and I joined forces and led the team to the victory...”

“I am so happy,” said Argentina’s captain Henry Sinner. “The best reward for us was the long process that turned us, Argentina, into a better group than others and I am proud of my friends. We are silver medallists!”

Chinese Taipei’s Huang fires another 30 points for the bronze

Just a week after their female compatriots finished fourth at the Girls’ U17 World Championship in Peru, Chinese Taipei’s boys did one better and climbed the historic podium with the bronze medals. In Saturday evening’s third place match in Bulgaria, they overcame Spain’s resistance on the way to a hard-fought 3-2 (25-17, 16-25, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12) victory. The tournament’s best scorer, Chinese Taipei’s 1.82m-tall star striker Huang Pin-Yen, contributed another 30 points towards this result to finish the championship on a remarkable total of 185. His match high included three kill blocks and two aces. Captain Tsai Tung-Cheng added another 18 points. Middle blocker Pan Shang-Yu finished with 12. On Spain’s side, opposite and captain Cesar Irache tallied 28 points, including five of the team’s 18 kill blocks. Another five were authored by middle Izunna Okafor, who put away a total of 12 points. Outside Rafel Tugores scored 16 times.

“I am very happy, because all my teammates have done a great job. I think they are the best,” said Chinese Taipei’s outside Hsueh Shang-Chen. “I want to thank them for still having the energy and fighting for our country after such a very long time. I think our best merit was that we trained a lot, we went through a lot of problems that we fixed, and in the end we won again. These are our best memories...”

Hard-fought classification battles line up the full final standings

Iran mastered a fantastic comeback from two sets down to achieve a 3-2 (21-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-9) victory over Belgium and the fifth place in the table. They compensated for the abundant unforced errors by prevailing over the opponents in all scoring elements on the way to a victorious end. As many as five Iranian players reached the double digits in the match, led by middle blocker Armin Asiaei, who topped the charts with 18 points. His cross-court teammate Amirhossein Naghavi made a solid contribution in blocking (four stuffs) and in serving (three aces) to finish with 15 points. Outside hitter and captain Jannes Strobbe was Belgium’s most prolific player with 14 points.

Egypt secured the seventh place with a 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 34-32, 25-23) comeback win over Brazil, after claiming the epic third set that lasted 66 rallies, or 34 minutes. The African side were led by opposite and captain Khaled Elfeky with 19 points. Middle blocker Ahmed Amer Abo Gabal raised five kill blocks and aced three times to add another 18 points towards Egypt’s success. Brazilian outsides Lucas Righi Carvalho and captain Bruno Romano Cosendy Marques topped the match scorers with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Despite a 23-point tally from Cuba’s opposite and captain Yosdani Medina, including three aces, Bulgaria pleased the home fans with a straight-set 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) victory in the ninth place match to head the bottom half of the tournament’s final standings. Opposite Daniel Tanev led the winners with 13 points. Setter Petko Petkov impressed with four aces, while middles Evan Georgiev and Nikolay Mihovski finished with five kill blocks each towards a solid team total of 15.

With a record-many nine kill blocks from captain Ayoub Al Baghdadi towards a match-high 27 points, Libya came back from a set down to deliver 3-1 (25-27, 25-23, 25-16, 25-17) victory over Mexico and took the 11^th place in the tournament. Outside Muezbillah Saleh Balnnour added another 25 points towards the team’s success in the match.

Tunisia finished the tournament on a high note, with a 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21) victory over Chile for the 13^th place. Their outside Omar Hfaiedh and Chile’s opposite Joaquin Valjalo shared the top-scorer honours with 22 points each.

Puerto Rico finished in 15^th place without playing on Saturday, while no-show Uzbekistan remained at the bottom of the table.

FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship: all results

Top individual scoring performances
40 points - Huang Pin-Yen (Chinese Taipei) v Bulgaria on August 25
32 points - Theo da Silva Schrank (Brazil) v Chinese Taipei on August 29
31 points - Huang Pin-Yen (Chinese Taipei) v Brazil on August 29
30 points - Rafel Tugores (Spain) v Belgium on August 29
30 points - Huang Pin-Yen (Chinese Taipei) v Spain on August 31

Top individual blocking performances
9 kill blocks - Ayoub Al Baghdadi (Libya) v Mexico on August 31
8 kill blocks - Ahmed Amer Abo Gabal (Egypt) v Argentina on August 29
7 kill blocks - Jose Manuel Pastor (Spain) v Chinese Taipei on August 26
7 kill blocks - Dimitar Peychinov (Bulgaria) v Mexico on August 26
7 kill blocks - Martino Bigozzi (Italy) v Mexico on August 27

Top individual serving performances
5 aces - Kamyab Abdollahifar (Iran) v Libya on August 24
5 aces - Mohammadraouf Khoshhaldashliboroun (Iran) v Chile on August 27
5 aces - Jannes Strobbe (Belgium) v Egypt on August 30
4 aces - Ahmed Amer Abo Gabal (Egypt) v Libya on August 25
4 aces - Muezbillah Balnnour (Libya) v Tunisia on August 26
4 aces - Aleksandar Dobrev (Bulgaria) v Argentina on August 27
4 aces - Rafel Tugores (Spain) v Belgium on August 29
4 aces - Andy Marrero (Cuba) v Libya on August 30
4 aces - Manuel Zlatanov (Italy) v Chinese Taipei on August 30
4 aces - Petko Petkov (Bulgaria) v Cuba on August 31

Top team blocking performances
20 kill blocks - Bulgaria v Mexico on August 26
19 kill blocks - Belgium v Spain on August 29
18 kill blocks - Egypt v Iran on August 26
18 kill blocks - Spain v Chinese Taipei on August 31
17 kill blocks - Libya v Mexico on August 31

Top team serving performances
11 aces - Iran v Libya on August 24
10 aces - Iran v Tunisia on August 25
10 aces - Bulgaria v Argentina on August 27
10 aces - Iran v Chile on August 27

Highest scoring matches
229 points - Bulgaria v Chinese Taipei 3-2 (32-30, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10) on August 25
225 points - Italy v Argentina 3-2 (23-25, 17-25, 25-22, 33-31, 15-9) on August 31
224 points - Argentina v Spain 3-2 (25-21, 17-25, 33-35, 25-18, 15-10) on August 30
219 points - Brazil v Chinese Taipei 2-3 (26-24, 21-25, 23-25, 25-22, 13-15) on August 29
215 points - Iran v Egypt 2-3 (19-25, 22-25, 25-19, 27-25, 13-15) on August 26

Longest matches (combined set durations)
127 minutes - Italy v Iran on August 29
126 minutes - Argentina v Spain on August 30
125 minutes - Argentina v Egypt on August 29
124 minutes - Brazil v Chinese Taipei on August 29
124 minutes - Italy v Argentina on August 31

Highest set scores
33-35 - Argentina v Spain third set on August 30
32-34 - Brazil v Egypt third set on August 31
33-31 - Italy v Argentina fourth set on August 31
32-30 - Bulgaria v Chinese Taipei first set on August 25
30-28 - Iran v Libya third set on August 24

Longest sets
40 minutes - Argentina v Spain third set on August 30
37 minutes - Italy v Argentina fourth set on August 31
34 minutes - Brazil v Egypt third set on August 31
33 minutes - Italy v Iran fourth set on August 29
32 minutes - Belgium v Spain third set on August 29

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