2017 Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship

The National Volleyball Women’s U23 Team of Iran will experience their second Asian Tournament where they are willing to improve their previous eighth place in Asia.

The 2^nd Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship will be held in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand on May 13-21.

Thirteen participating teams will rival for Asian Medal, the preliminary round of which will be into four pools (three three-team pools and one four-team pool) as:

Pool A: Thailand, Macao, Hong Kong

Pool B: Japan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Pool C: Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, Australia, Sri Lanka

Pool D: Iran, New Zealand, Malaysia

The national women’s team of Iran will rest on the first day of preliminary round. They will face Malaysia on the opening match of day two. The next match will be then against New Zealand on Monday.

The Formation of Iranian Women’s U23

The women’s U23 team of Iran started working on December 2016 when Sima Sedighi takes over the coaching position.

The 1^st preparatory camp began on 25^th January and lasted for seven days at the camp of national teams of women at Azadi Sports Complex which was a qualification one as well.

The second camp of national U23 Women was followed from 11-18 March and 27 players participated in the camp to prove their capabilities.

The third camp had 20 players who have started their trainings from 3-9 April and then were departed to Slovenia to follow their trainings abroad.

The fourth training camp commenced on April, the 24^th and lasted for nine days at the national camp of women at Azadi Sports Complex. The national players would have one more friendly camp in the host country where they are to play at the main venue.

The head coach of Women’s U23 team elaborated on the process of preparation and said: “on the first qualification camp, those players who were not taking part in the Premier league and league one, were invited to test their technical and body preparation level.

Sima Sedighi said: “the second qualification camp had the ones from the league and 20 players were overall selected to take part in the remaining process of trainings.”

She also emphasized: “the age group of the players made it possible for them to take part in two Asian Championship and there will not be any restrictions engaged”.

**The 1^st Edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship

The first edition of this tournament took place in Philippine where Iran was one of the twelve participating teams.

The top four teams of tournament were China, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. In the preliminary wound, Iran faced Philippine and Kazakhstan and beat them 3-1 and 3-2 and moved up to the next round as the top team of the pool. In the playoff, Iranian U23 women lost to Chinese Taipei and Japan 3-0 and missed the way up to the semifinal.

The national U23 women of Iran went to fight for 5^th-8^th place then. They accepted a loss to Thailand 3-1, and to India 3-2 and to the hosts Philippine 3-0 and finished the 8^th.

** the World Ticket for the Champion & Vice-champion

The 2^nd Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship will be held from 13 to 21 May in “Nakhon Ratchasima”, Thailand. The top two teams of this tournament will earn the berth for the World championship.

The 2017 World Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship will occur in Slovenia where eight teams of Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria Turkey, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, and Kenya had already claimed the spot in addition to the host Slovenia.

Two world editions had already taken place in U23 age groups one in 2013 Mexico where China, Dominican Republic, and Japan conquered the top three teams and another one in 2015 when Brazil, the hosts Turkey, and Dominican Republic claimed the first three teams.