Asian Volleyball Championship: Pakistan fall before reaching the knockouts

The team is now playing classification matches for ninth to 16th spots.

KARACHI: Pakistan lost the race to qualify for the quarter-finals of the 18th Asian Men’s Seniors Volleyball Championship after losing their last Pool C match 3-0 to South Korea at the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.

The last encounter was a must-win for Pakistan in order to finish in the top two positions in their pool to advance to the quarter-finals.

Pakistan, who lost their opening match 3-2 to Thailand on July 31, won their second fixture 3-0 against Oman the next day but lost the last match against the dominant Koreans, who won with scores of 25-21, 25-12 and 25-17.



With two losses and a win, Pakistan secured four points and finished third in Pool C and were moved to Pool G for classification matches for ninth to 16th spots with Kazakhstan, Oman and Kuwait where Kazakhstan have won one match in their pool while Oman and Kuwait lost all three.

In the classification match, Pakistan secured two points by winning their first pool match 3-2 against Kuwait on Monday and will now play their second fixture with Kazakhstan on Tuesday. If they win this match, they will move into the ninth to 12th place semi-final round.

“The boys have trained hard since May and were in prime form to reach the semi-finals, but their performance was not up to the mark,” head coach Mazhar Hussain told The Express Tribune from Tehran.

He added, “We have to accept the reality that the other nations are using modern techniques and equipment in training, while we have the same old facilities.”

The coach further said that he has written a report on the performance of the players and will start working on their weaknesses once they are back from the championship.

Meanwhile, in the other classification matches, Kazakhstan defeated Oman 3-1, while India were playing Sri Lanka and Bahrain were up against Turkmenistan at the time of filing this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th,  2015.

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