Brazil and Bulgaria topped their pools at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship in Bahrain after defeating their main opponents, Italy in Pool B and Poland in Pool C, respectively, in Sunday’s last matches of the first pool stage in Manama. Pools A and D are next up, during Sunday’s evening session, starting at 17:00 local time (14:00 UTC).

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Pool B

Outserving the opponents by seven aces to none, Brazil celebrated a 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18) victory over Italy in the deciding clash for the first place in Pool B to top the final standings on a perfect 3-0 win-loss record and leave the southern Europeans in second on 2-1, with both sides moving forward to the top-eight tier for the second pool stage of the tournament. Spiking at a 55% success rate, Brazilian outside hitter Arthur Bento, a 2022 South American U21 Championship Dream Teamer, who was part of the senior men’s national team during the first two competition weeks of Volleyball Nations League 2023, once again led his squad to success, putting away the match high of 19 points, including an ace and a block. His teammate in the middle, Thiery Oliveira, a Dream Teamer at the 2022 Pan American Cup, impressed with six kill blocks towards an 11-point tally. Edwin Arguelles Sanchez was Italy’s best scorer on 12 points.

In the last game of the Pool B programme, Egypt delivered a 3-1 (25-13, 25-20, 17-25, 25-15) win over Mexico, their first of the tournament and enough for the third place in the final pool standings. Winless Mexico finished bottom-fourth as both teams continue their participation in the lower-eight tier of the second pool stage. Egypt’s opposite and captain Zyad Mohamed and outside Hamza Awad contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively, to the victory, while Mexico’s Leonardo Maldonado Diaz was the best scorer of the match with 16 points.

Pool C

In a remake of the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship final, Bulgaria and Poland put up a spectacular five-set battle to determine the Pool C winners in a direct clash between two unbeaten teams. The southern Europeans managed to stay undefeated after celebrating a 3-2 (25-23, 26-28, 25-17, 22-25, 15-11) victory, leaving their central European opponents in the runner-up position on a 2-1 win-loss record. Both will continue the race for the medals among the top eight of the tournament. Aleksandar Nikolov, a Dream Teamer at both the U19 World Championship in 2021 and the U20 European Championship in 2022, and an important player of the senior men’s national team, was once again the best scorer of the match. He produced an amazing seven aces, in addition to three kill blocks and 17 successful spikes to top the charts on 27 points. Spiking at a 63% success rate, his cross-court teammate Vladimir Garkov, a Dream Teamer of the 2019 U17 European Championship, added another 21 points, including three aces. Opposite Aliaksei Nasevich led Poland with 22 points, including four blocks and two aces.

Canada celebrated their first win of the tournament and finished third in Pool C after defeating India by 3-1 (18-25, 29-27, 25-20, 25-22). As the bottom two teams in the final pool standings, both teams will continue their participation in the U21 World Championship in the matches for the distribution of places from ninth to 16^th. India dominated the first set, but after narrowly losing the second in the overtime, they let Canada take control for the next two and win the match on an impressive 17 kill blocks during the game. Opposite Brendan Mills raised six of these blocks towards a 22-point match tally, while outside Kaden Schmidt led the team with 23 points. India’s outside Aman Kumar topped the charts with 26 points.

2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship: full schedule and results

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