AVC Men Champs/Iran failed to move up to Semifinal

Surabaya, Indonesia, July 30, 2017 – Hosts Indonesia made history on Sunday when they produced an incredible 3-2 comeback victory over powerhouses Iran to advance to the semi-finals of the SMM 19th Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship for the first time in 42 years since their debut appearance in the inaugural Asian Championship in 1975.

Indonesia recovered from going down the first two sets 18-25 18-25 to Iran before clawing their ways back to win the remaining three sets 25-23 26-24 15-11 in an exhausting 122-minute battle In front of more than 2,000 boisterous home crowds at the Tri Dharma Petrokimia Gymnasium.

The win allowed the host side a chance to strut their stuff in the Monday’s semi-finals against defending and eight-time champions Japan, the 3-0 (25-21 25-16 25-22) winners over Australia in the other quarter-final encounter. Indonesia took part in the first Asian meet in 1975 in Melbourne, Australia, where they finished a distant 6th place out of seven participating teams. Since then, they have never finished among top four in any edition. Their best performance was the sixth position in 1975, 1991, 1999 and 2009.

Iran, the 2011 and 2013 Asian champions and the only Asian team joining the fray in the FIVB World League Group 1, did not send their senior team, but instead fielded a strong U23 squad this time in their final preparation for the next month’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s U23 World Championship in Cairo, Egypt.

Rivan Nurmulki scored a team-high 24 points for the host team including 23 kills from 51 attempts, while Rendy Fabricant Tamamilang contributed 19 kills and 3 aces and Sigit Ardian added 3 kill blocks. Amin Esmaeilnejad led Iran with 20 points including 19 kills. Saeid Javaheri Tavana contributed 12 kills and 2 aces. Rahman Taghizadeh scored 6 kill blocks.