All teams are finding their exact places in the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship final standings as the final classification matches are taking place in the Bahraini capital Manama on Sunday. While the medal podium is still about to be finalized, Poland, Brazil, Belgium, Thailand, Egypt, Czechia, Canada, India, United States, Mexico, Bahrain and Tunisia, in that order, lined up in the places from fifth to 16^th.

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Poland battled it out with Brazil for the fifth place in the final U21 World Championship standings. The U19 world champions from two years ago finished the tournament in Bahrain with a 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-17, 25-22) win over the South Americans, who had to settle for sixth. In each of the first two sets, the lead went back and forth, as the two teams took a set each. After that, the Europeans stayed well in control of the situation on the way to the victory. The Brazilians outblocked the opponents during the game, but the Poles did better in all other elements. Their opposite Aliaksei Nasevich was once again the best scorer of the match. He delivered three aces and three kill blocks towards the match high of 23 points. Outside hitters Kamil Szymendera (two aces, two blocks) and Piotr Sliwka (three aces) finished with 13 points each. Lukas Felipe Bergmann was Brazil’s most productive player with 18 points.

A hard-fought battle between Belgium and Thailand pushed the first set of the seventh-place match to overtime. In the second, the Belgians recovered from a three-point deficit, but once they took over the scoreboard (after 16-16), they cruised on to a 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-16) shutout. Captain Ferre Reggers led his team to victory with 16 points, while middle blockers Jasper Verhamme (seven stuffs) and Simon Luka Vlahovic impressed with a combined 13 of the team’s 17 kill blocks in total. Jakkrit Thanomnoi scored 13 points for Thailand.

Egypt finished ninth after a 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-18, 25-14) victory over Czechia. The Egyptians were well in control of the first set and, although the Czechs fought their way back to within one, the Africans edged forward in the match. The fight continued in the second and this time the Europeans pushed through to draw level. The next two sets, however, were completely one-sided and Egypt celebrated victorious. Their serving was the key to success as it brought the team as many as 12 aces against only one for the Czechs. Four of those were authored by captain Zyad Mohamed, who emerged as the best scorer of the game with 19 points, followed by Hamza Awad with 17. On Czechia’s side, Jiri Benda and David Kollator finished with 15 and 14, respectively.

Canada were well in control for most of the first two sets of the 11^th-place game against India. However, the Indians put up a solid battle in the third and even managed to turn it around and break away with a five-point lead, reaching set point at 24-19. The Canadians stormed back with a five-point run to push the set into overtime and eventually win it for a straight-set 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 31-29) victory. The North Americans did better than the Asians in spiking and in making fewer unforced errors. They were led in scoring by captain Jacob Sargent with 14 points, Kaden Schmidt with 12 and Brendan Mills with 10, while India’s Aman Kumar was the best scorer of the match with 18 points.

United States got back at Mexico for the four-set defeat in a Pool H game on Thursday and hammered out an emphatic 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-18) shutout of their neighbours in the 13^th-place classification game on Sunday. The Americans outplayed the opponents in serving, blocking and spiking and the Mexicans never managed to take the lead in any of the sets. USA’s Dillon Klein with 14 points, Marc Smith with 13 and Alexander Rottman with 12 were the leading scorers of the match, while none of the Mexicans managed to reach the double digits.

Bahrain also got back at Tunisia for the five-set loss in a Pool G match on Wednesday and finished their home tournament on a high note, with a convincing 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-17) victory in the 15^th-place match, leaving the Tunisians bottom of the final standings. Captain Husain Ehsan produced two aces and two kill blocks to share the top scorer honours with teammate Sayed Hashem Ali on 15 points each.  Ali Alarab hammered four of Bahrain’s seven aces in the game. Opposite Khaled Bouallegue with 11 points was Tunisia’s only player to reach the double digits.

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

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