FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship: India to meet Cuba for classification
August 31, 2021
India gave a good fight before losing to world No. 12 Brazil 19-25, 17-25, 23-25 in the pre-quarterfinals of the FIVB World U19 Volleyball Championships at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran on Monday.
Brazil captain Arthur led his team with a top score of 19 points and Samuel added 9 points while Tanish (14), Aman (9), Ajay (5) for India were the top scorers. Brazil had 7 blocks to India’s 5 and 2 aces to India’s none and Brazil had 45 attacks to India 37 in the 67 minute match.
On Tuesday, India will play a classification match for 9-16 place against Cuba who were placed fourth in the Group D while the bottom-ranked teams of each group will play classification matches for 17th-20th place.
India, with a world ranking of 49, began with a bang by shocking two-time African champions Nigeria who are world No.9 in the opening Group A match. After Guatemala were forced to withdraw when their players were found Covid-19 positive, India were assured of a place in the round of 16, behind European bronze medallist Poland, world No. 14, hosts Iran who are ranked fifth, the other countries in the group with two wins and six points.
Indians are playing the worlds after a gap of 12 years, the last played in 2009 when Italy hosted in 2009 and have a best – second place – finish in the 2003 Thailand edition.
Brazil will meet Russia for a semifinal berth and the final will be played on Thursday (Sept. 2). Out of 20, only 18 teams are competing in the 17th edition after the Dominican Republic also joined Guatemala as their players turned Covid-19 positive. Italy are the reigning champions which they won in Tunis two years ago while hosts Iran (2017 champs), Brazil (2003 champs) and Russia are the contenders.
Indian squad: Sandeep (Rajasthan), Sameer Chaudhary (captain, Delhi), Aman Kumar (Haryana), Harshit Giri (Chamdigarh), Ajay Kumar (Haryana), Tanish Choudhary (Delhi), Joshnoor Dhindsa (Punjab), Jibin Job (Kerala), Dushyant Singh (Rajasthan), Srinath Selvakumar (Tamil Nadu), Dibyam Shahi (Uttar Pradesh), Chikkanna Venu (libero, TN).Head coach: Pritam Singh Chauhan, assistant coach: Praveen Kumar Sharma & Bijoy Babu (assistant coaches)
