Lankans placed 14th in Asian Rankings

Bernard PERERA in Indonesia

VOLLEYBALL: Sri Lankan Spikers who took part in the 14th Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball championships here in Jakarta left yesterday after the completion of their games.The Lankan spikers were deprived of witnessing the closing ceremony as there were no flights available for them to return on the next day.

Sri Lanka were placed 14th in the overall standings with only two victories during the championships. The Lankans who were in Group C lost their two games in the preliminary round to Thailand and Saudi Arabia and ousted from the top eight teams. They were later grouped along with Pakistan, Vietnam and Maldives for ranking of the championship for the remaining places.

The other Group consisted of India, Kazakhstan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The eight teams to qualify for the main Championship were found from the preliminary round Australia, Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, the hosts Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and Iran.

Sri Lanka managed two victories in the second stage of the championship when they overcame Maldives and Vietnam. They lost to Pakistan during this stage and the Pakistanis got ahead of Sri Lanka to finish thirteenth.

The Lankans had things easy against Maldives and Vietnam on their way to occupy the 14th position. During the whole championship the Lankans could muster six set victories while losing also the same number of sets in round two to collect 5 points just a point behind Pakistan.

Maldives were placed last in the rankings while Vietnam finished before them. The ninth place in the rankings was Sri Lanka’s neighbour India with 6 points but had three wins in round two and also had a higher number ofset wins (9) under their belt take 9th position. India was followed by Kazakhstan, Qatar and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Australia maintained their supremacy staying unbeaten throughout the championship registering six wins from the same number of games which also helped them collect the maximum 12 points. Japan follows them with 11 points collected from six matches to occupy the second slot.

Australia which plays China today has to win this game if they are to maintain their top position. Meanwhile if Japan makes a win here today and Australia lose the final game here to China today then the leaders Australia will drop to second slot.

The results of today’s games will not in anyway hamper the four top teams march towards the Olympic Games in China next year. Australia, Japan and Korea along with hosts of the Olympic Games China are sure to compete at the with present standings of the Asian Championships.

Yesterday Australia Trashed Thailand in straight sets though the Thais fought hard to give the Aussies everything they had. It was only in the last set The Thais fell back a little. The Japan-China match too was of good interest but as expected Japan went ahead to win the game three sets to nil.

Indonesia the hosts and Korea are the teams that registered easy victories yesterday also in straight sets.