China and Kazakhstan complete the quartet of teams to qualify for the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship after they both won on Sunday at the AVC Qualification Tournament Pool A in Kazakhstan.
Thailand and Korea were qualified earlier on Saturday as they both stay unbeaten before they meet in the last day of the qualifier tournament Pool B in Thailand.
Pool A featured China, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Fiji and Kazakhstan, while Pool B was made up of Korea, DPR Korea, Iran, Vietnam and Thailand.
China beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-10), and Kazakhstan matched the result with a 3-0 (25-8, 25-19, 25-14) defeat of Fiji on the closing match of the tournament. Korea maintained their form in Pool B to defeat Thailand 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21) and top the pool. Four Asian teams together with host team Japan are qualified to the World Championship 2018.
“It has been a long and difficult tournament, but we are happy to succeed with our goal of getting the ticket to Japan,” said China captain Zhu Ting.
“We are happy to win and we finally got this ticket after so many injuries and other things we needed to face,” said Kazakhstan captain Radmila Beresneva. “We got together and made it.”
“My players’ performance lived up to the coaches’ expectations,” Thailand head coach Danai Sriwacharamaytakul said. “It was just the first mission of our team to qualify for the Japan finals. However, I want to praise DPR Korea for their solid performance in this match against us.”
Photo: FIVB
