Thailand fail to bring down taller Russia

World No 12 Thailand, who finished a surprising fourth at the World Grand Prix last year, tried hard to overcome Russia, one of the world’s strongest teams and whom they have never beaten before, but found the defending two-time world champions too strong to go down fighting 25-20 25-23 25-22.

Thailand have two wins and three losses in this year’s Grand Prix. They beat Algeria but lost to Japan and hosts Turkey in Pool C in Ankara last week. In Pool J matches in Ekaterinburg here, Thailand opened up with win over Cuba, but succumbed to Russia. After five matches, Thailand have only six points and are placed 12th overall. A total of 20 teams are competing in the one month long tournament in pursuit of five berths to the Finals in Sapporo.

Against world No 6 Russians, whose height average is 186cm against the visitors’ 175cms, Thailand put up an impressive performance in the first game with powerful Onuma Sittirak pulling off some explosive jump serves. The host side took advantage of their height to attack spectacularly and block effectively to win the game 25-20.

Thailand came out fighting in the second game but despite their brave efforts failed to stop the marauding Russians, who won 25-23.

Thailand made the third game a tightly contested one but Russia had all the answers to the riddles posed by the Kingdom’s spikers to win 25-22 and the match.

After the match, Thai head coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai said, “My team tried its best. The taller Russians had the height advantage. The players, however, made some tactical errors that helped the hosts.

 “I think we played better than in Turkey last week. Now our chances to qualify for the Finals are difficult. If you want to qualify, you have to win all four remaining matches (including three in the Bangkok leg from August 16-18).

 “Our chances of qualifying also depends on the results of other leading teams. But that is a distinct possibility. We only can hope to put in some good performances in the remaining matches,” he added.

Russian coach Iuriy Marichev said the victory was far from easy. “For us, Asian teams are very difficult. Their game style is different from European volleyball. 

They play the game very fast and their services are quite difficult. Thailand played very well, and we faced many difficulties, but we blocked successfully.”

Russia captain Ekaterina Pankova added: “It was not easy. Thailand have a very difficult playing combination. Fortunately, we won.”

The other match saw two-time World Cup winners Italy brush off Cuba 25-16 25-16 25-20. On Sunday, Thailand were due to take on Italy and Russia to face Cuba.