The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Asian junior championship begins today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 03, 2004

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Asian junior championship begins today

By M.C. Raman

DOHA, SEPT. 2. Two years ago in Teheran the Indian junior men's volleyball team lost to Iran in the final of the Asian championship. But this time the squad has a bright chance of capturing the title for the first time.

The 12th edition of the Asian junior championship begins here tomorrow at the main Khalifa stadium with an opening ceremony that has been planned after completing five matches in the morning.

India and Iran are right on top in the junior and youth rankings. To achieve this the Volleyball Federation of India had to toil hard for more than two decades and now India has broken the stranglehold of the Asian `giants'. India and Iran have covered considerable ground at this level and 2003 turned out to be the best year for Indian juniors as the youth squad took the silver in the World championship in Thailand and the junior team came ninth in the World championship in Teheran.

``Our advantage is that we have played against all the teams. India won the Asian Youth championship at Visakhapatnam in 2003 and all the teams' players who figured in that tournament are now with the junior squads. Moreover, the Indian team which beat Iran and China in the Rasheed tournament recently in Dubai was made up of mostly this juniors. So the confidence level is high among the boys. But we will go match by match,'' said chief coach G.E. Sridharan.

The groupings:

Group `A': Qatar, Chinese-Taipei, Saudi Arabia, Australia; Gr. `B': Iran, Bahrain, UAE, Thailand, Oman; Gr. `C': India, Pakistan, Jordan, Indonesia, Japan; Gr. `D': China, Korea, Kuwait, Yemen, Sri Lanka.

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