BAHRAIN last night made history by qualifying for the 2015 FIVB Men’s Under-20 World Cup Volleyball Championship for the first time.
Playing in front of a full-house, Bahrain recovered from a stumbling start to defeat Taipei 3-1 (25-27, 25-19, 25-17, 25-20) in a nail-biting quarter-final tie of the 17th Asian Men’s Under-20 Volleyball Championship.
South Korea, China and Iran also booked berth in the world event to be held in Mexico next August by entering the semi-finals of this event.
South Korea beat Japan, China got better of Qatar and Iran defeated Thailand.
The semi-finals are scheduled for today. Bahrain take on Iran at 4pm while Korea faces China at 6.30pm. The final is scheduled for tomorrow.
Bahrain’s promising player Mohammed Saleh Anan stole the limelight scoring crucial points and making key blocks in a 100-minute action-packed clash against a fighting Taipei.
The Bahrainis headed into this game brimming with confidence and made the most of home advantage.
Head coach Reda Ali started the game with his most prominent players – Mohammed Anan, Ebrahim, Sayed Kadhim, playmaker Abdulrahman Al Mutawa, libero Mohammed Hasan and skipper Mahmood Abdulwahed.
Meanwhile, defending champions Japan were sent crashing in the day’s other interesting game, going down to six-time Asian champions South Korea in an 75-minute thriller 25-27, 23-25, 19-25.
Chasing their third successive title, Japan and their head coach Singo Sakai headed into the tough match against the Koreans banking on his top spiker Yuki Ishikawa, who made most of his team scoring.
However, it was the Koreans who proved the better side thanks to some outstanding teamwork led by Zhejia Zhang.
Haxiang Du, Yaoche Yu and Yuanbo Li were also in superb form for Korea, coached by Park Jeongsik.
Early on, four times Asian winners Iran eased past Thailand 25-21, 25-7, 25-19 in less than 60 minutes to storm into the last four.
Iran, the tournament’s third seeds, were spearheaded by skipper Mohammadjavad Manavinezhad, Hadi Seyediazi and Akbar Valaei.
Another Asian powerhouse China completed the semi-final cast with a comeback win over Qatar 25-17, 25-19, 21-25, 25-23.
Classification matches:
9-16: Saudi Arabia bt Turkmenistan 25-17, 25-23, 25-20; India bt Uzbekistan 27-25, 25-19, 25-10; Kazakhstan bt New Zealand 25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, 15-12.