Thailand regain Asian Championship gold after ten years

With dramatic five-set victories over powerhouses Japan and China in consecutive days, Thailand returned to the top of the podium at the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship on Wednesday, triumphing in the 22^nd edition of the tournament in front of more than 5,000 of their home fans in Nakhon Ratchasima.

It was the third victory of the Thais at the continental level, following their triumphs in 2009 and 2013. The team also took silver in the last two editions of the event, in 2017 and 2019, and bronze in 2001, 2007 and 2015. It was also the team’s third title in 2023 as Thailand had triumphed at the Southeast Asian Games back in May and at the Southeastern Asian V. League in August.

Involving 14 national teams from the continent, the Asian Championship was held over the course of eight days and saw the Thais take the title with an undefeated campaign of seven victories.

Counting on their main stars, Thailand came up big in the medal rounds of the event, topping Japan 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 20-25, 25-20, 15-11) in the semifinals on Tuesday and beating China also in the tie-breaker (25-21, 25-27, 25-19, 20-25, 16-14) in the gold medal match.

Thai outside hitter Chatchu-On Moksri led the Thai triumph in the gold medal match, producing a match-high 23 points for the winners – fellow outside hitter Ajcharaporn Kongyot and middle blocker Thatdao Nuekjang got 22 and 16 points, respectively. On the Chinese side, outside hitter Wu Mingjie tallied 22 points.

The 23-year-old Moksri was also awarded as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. The Asian Championship's Dream Team had Thailand's Pornpun Guepard at setter, China's Zhou Yetong at opposite, Japan's Yuki Nishikawa and China's Wu Mengjie at outside hitter, Thailand's Nuekjang and China's Yang Hanyu at middle blocker and Japan's Kojima Manami at libero.

The winners of the last two editions of the Asian Championship, Japan, who just like China rested their main players for the upcoming Road to Paris Volleyball Olympic Qualifier, finished third, securing their third-straight medal in the event.

In the bronze medal match, they faced the tournament sensations Vietnam, who made it to the semifinals for the first time since their first appearance, in 1991, and walked away with a dramatic five-set (21-25, 25-14, 25-22, 20-25, 15-11) win.

Japanese outside hitter Okumu Fuyumi topped all scorers in the match with 27 points, while Vietnam’s outside hitter Tran Thi Thanh Thuy led her team with 22 points.

“This was my first time playing an entire tournament with Japan at the international level,” Fuyumi commented. “I had some difficult moments, but I’m grateful to the coaching staff for trusting me. It was a great experience and I’ll keep working to continue developing my game, especially defensively.”

The three Asian Championship medalists will be back on the court in just nine days for the Road to Paris Olympic Qualifier. China will host Pool A and will compete against Serbia, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Canada, Czechia, Mexico and Ukraine.

The host country in Pool B, Japan will have Brazil, Türkiye, Belgium, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Peru as opponents. Thailand will be in Pool C, in Poland, which also counts on the hosts, Italy, the United States, Germany, Colombia, Korea and Slovenia.

All three pools will be held from September 16-24 and the two best national teams in each of them will book their tickets to next year’s Paris Olympics.