Sri Lanka fail to qualify

Bernard Perera in Indonesia

VOLLEYBALL: The Sri Lanka spikers failed once again fighting for the ninth position in the Asian region volleyball championships. Lankans after missing the chance to be in the first eight losing both games, displayed a poor performance against Qatar yesterday.

They lost by three sets to nil while losing the second set scoring only 9 points. In the first set they went down 25-17.

In the next set they were completely outplayed by their opponents. Qatar were well placed in their positioning and never allowed the Lankans to go pass the double figure mark.

Playing the third set they performed a little better causing a slight threat to the Qatar spikers. In fact the Lankans threat was so great that the Qatarians could not finish the set at 25 with Lankans fighting all the way to go up to 29-27. This was also the best set played by the Lankans in the tourney. With this defeat they will not be able to stay even at the ninth slot in the rankings.

Meanwhile Kazakastan were in full control of their game against Pakistan and came as victors in straight sets.

This too was a game played for the rankings below the eight position. The other two games in the groups G and H, Vietnam defeated Kuwait that too on the same margin 3-0. Saudis who could not enter the quarters managed to overcome Maldives comfortably 3-0.

Favourites in the Championships Australia, Japan, China and Chinese Taipei advanced to the semifinals completing victories over Korea, Iran, Thailand and Indonesian the hosts.