Ardabil, Iran, April 30, 2017 - All is set for the SMM 2nd Asian Men’s U23 Volleyball Championship between May 1 and 9 in Ardabil, where reigning champions Iran hope to successfully defend their title before home supporters to become one of the two teams to qualify for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U23 World Championship in Egypt.
The General Technical Meeting of the Asian Men’s U23 Championship was held on Sunday in Ardabil, with Dr. Davarzani, Youth and Sports Deputy Minister of Iran, presiding.
Dr Davarzani, President of Iran Volleyball Federation, delivered the opening speech and wished all distinguished guests and officials a nice stay in their visit to the historic city of Ardabil.
The team managers, head coaches and team doctors of the participating teams also took part in this meeting. A total of 11 teams comprising China, Japan, Iran, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Malaysia confirmed their participation in the second edition of this age group championship, which serves as Asia’s qualifying tournament for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U23 World Championship in Egypt between August 18 and 26.
The 11 participating teams have been drawn into four pools. Iran and Pakistan are in Pool A, with Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Pool B. Pool C includes China, Australia and Malaysia, while Pool D consists of Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Only the top two teams from this top-flight tournament will join hosts Egypt, South American champions Brazil, European winners and runners-up Poland and Turkey, Argentina, Cuba and Mexico, African winners Algeria, Italy and Russia in the 12-team World Championship in Cairo, Egypt.
The pool round-robin preliminaries will be held from May 1 to 3, with Uzbekistan taking on Kazakhstan, Malaysia playing Australia, Japan facing Sri Lanka and Pakistan pitted against hosts Iran on the opening day.
With only one match in Pool A between Iran and Pakistan on Monday, both teams have already secured quarterfinal berths.
In the second round, the top two teams from each pool will be divided to play in Pools E and F for classification in the last eight-team playoff matches. Teams finishing third in each pool will play in the 9th-11th playoffs. May 6 will be the rest day.