Bahrain go down fighting to India in Asian volleyball | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Bahrain go down fighting to India in Asian volleyball | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain went down fighting to India while defending champions Iran cruised past Saudi Arabia to punch their tickets to the semi-finals this evening in the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship, currently being hosted by Bahrain at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

The Bahrainis succumbed to their Indian counterparts 1-3 (22-25, 19-25, 28-26, 24-26) in a tightly contested affair, while Iran ousted West Asian champions Saudi 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-21).

The hosts are now out of title contention and will play for their best classification. India march through to the final four where they await their opponents.

As per the tournament format implemented by the Asian Volleyball Confederation, Bahrain as hosts and Iran as defending champions, along with their opponents, gained a bye from the round-of-12 playoffs and advanced directly to the quarter-finals, following the preliminaries.

The other teams need to win their playoff ties to make it to the quarters. Among those others to triumph yesterday and advance to the round of eight were South Korea, Bangladesh, Thailand and China.

South Korea shrugged off a slow start in their game to beat Pakistan 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25- 23, 25-20), while Bangladesh recovered from an opening-set setback to defeat