India to face Japan, Iran in Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship

The Indian women’s volleyball team will participate with 13 other teams at the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship 2023 which will be held in Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand starting from August 30 to September 6.

Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship is being held after a gap of four years. The biennial volleyball event was cancelled in 2021 due to COVID-19.

The top three teams from the competition will qualify for the 2025 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women's World Championship.

According to Olympics.com, the competition will be conducted in three phases - the preliminary round, the classification round and the knockout round.

The teams have been slotted into four groups for the prelims. Pool A and B have three teams each while Pool C and D will feature four teams.

India, 68th in the world rankings, have been placed in Pool B alongside defending champions Japan and 65th-ranked Iran. China are the most successful side in the tournament with 13 titles. They are in Pool D.

The top two teams from each of the four groups in the preliminary round make it to Pool E and F while the remaining teams are drawn into Pools G and H of the classification round and will play only for positions.

The two top teams from Pool E and F will make it to the semi-finals.

The semi-final will be held on September 5 while the third-place match and the final will be held on September 6.

India’s best performance in the tournament came in 1979 when they finished seventh on their debut. The Indian women’s volleyball team registered consecutive 10th-place finishes in the 2017 and 2019 editions.

A 12-member squad will represent India at the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship 2023.

The week-long tournament will be played at two venues - Korat Chatchai Hall and The Mall Korat’s MCC Hall.

Indian women’s volleyball team: Jini KS, Maria Sebastian, Nirmal, Shaalini, Saranya, Ezhilmathi, S Soorya, Shilpa, Anusree Ghosh, Minimol, Anagha and Ananya Das.

Pool A: Thailand, Australia, Mongolia

Pool B: Japan, Iran, India

Pool C: South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Uzbekistan

Pool D: China, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Philippines (ANI)