2010 Asian Games: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait earn victories, Japan stays undefeated
The preliminary round of the 2010 Asian Games’ men’s volleyball tournament took another step towards completion with six games on Tuesday. The women’s preliminary round begins on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia vs Mongolia Group C
Saudi Arabia improved to 2-1 with a 3-1 (25-15 22-25 25-19 25-20) victory over Mongolia on Tuesday. A win Wednesday against Turkmenistan will clinch second place for them in Group C. Mongolia’s record
dropped to 0-3, and they’ll look to earn their first win Wednesday against Indonesia.
Asaad Hesham Azouz led Saudi Arabia with 19 points, and three others on the team had 16 points. Sakhanbaatar Erdenebat led Mongolia with 19 points.
Mongolia was crushed in the first set before coming back to win the second set by a score of 25-22, but Saudi Arabia picked up the pace from there, talking the final two sets with ease.
Myanmar vs Athletes from Kuwait Group D
Kuwait improved to 2-2 with a 3-1 (25-19 25-22 23-25 25-11) victory over Myanmar, whose record fell to 1-2. Kuwait will clinch second place if Qatar loses to Myanmar on Wednesday, while Myanmar will finish
in fourth even with a win against Qatar.
Sultan Mohammad led Kuwait with 21 points while Kyaq Shwe led Myanmar with 16 points.
Kuwait cruised to an easy victory in the first set, and won the second set 25-22. Down 2-0, Myanmar pushed back taking the third set 25-23, but that only seemed to spark Kuwait who then took the fourth
set 25-11 to win the match.
Japan vs Qatar Group D
Japan improved to 3-0 with a win in straight sets (25-19 25-15 32-30). The victory clinches first place in Group D for Japan while Qatar fell to 2-3. Qatar will now need to beat Kuwait on Wednesday to
take second place in the Group.
Japan’s top scorer was Yuta Yoneyama, who had 14 points. Qatar’s top scorer was Ibrahim M. Ibrahim.
Japan had little trouble winning the first two sets, but Qatar pressed hard in the third set. It took extra points to decide the final set with Japan finally coming out on top in the 33 minute marathon
set, 32-30.
Japan is one of three teams that has yet to lose a set in the tournament. Their set record is 9-0. The other undefeated teams are Iran at 12-0 and Korea at 6-0.
The men’s placement matches begin on 19 November.
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