Thai spikers put to the test over daunting World Grand Prix

 

Thailand, bronze mdallists at the last year’s Asian Championship and the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, arrived in Ningbo, China on Tuesday after a long-haul journey from Switzerland, where they performed superbly to finish second to the eventual winners China in their debut Montreux Volley Masters.

[WATCH] Thai women spikers' training session in Ningbo 

Aside from taking part in Pool A in Ningbo, China, the Thai spikers will next week leave for Bari, Italy to join European winners Russia, European silver medallists the Netherlands and world No.8 Italy in Pool F from June 17 to 19. After that, Thailand will head to Kyoto, Japan to compete in Pool I against hosts Japan, Russia and Serbia between June 24 and 26.

 

A total  of 12 teams worldwide are testing their mettle in the one-month-long tournament, with all participating teams divided into three pools of four teams apiece to compete in a group round-robin contest for three weeks.

 

At the end of the preliminaries, top five teams among all 12 participating teams plus hosts Thailand will make the cut for the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals, which are due to be held at the Hua mark Indoor Stadium, Bangkok from July 6 to 10.

 

Ahead of their matches in Ningbo, head coaches from four participating teams commented about their preparations in the press interview on Thursday evening.

 

“I’m so excited that my team arrived here to play great teams like the World Cup champions China and Thailand, though failing to qualify for the Olympics, they proved well their good performances. Also, we have to take on Germany, one of the Europe’s strong teams, especially in the past three years. We hope to gain experience and learn mistakes here ahead of our tough contest in Rio,” said USA’s head coach Karch Kiraly.

 

“A chance to play three strong teams consisting of the USA, Germany and Thailand will help boost our team’s confidence when we play in the Rio Games. I think we will learn a lot from the competition here,” China’s head coach Lang Ping said.

 

“After failing to qualify for the Rio Games, we got a new team with young players. We just hope that our team will obtain competition experience here and we will do our best to claim points in our first week here,” Germany’s head coach Felix Koslowski commented.

 

“All teams coming here are strong and I think by playing them, my players will learn valuable experience. They will next play with more confidence. We will do our best and hope to see every team here again in the World Grand Prix Finals in Bangkok,” said Thailand’s head coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai.

 

Thailand are sending a full team of 14 players in Pool A, leaving only fast attacker Jarasporn Bandasak to be sidelined.

 

The match between Thailand and China will be held at 7.30pm local time (6.30pm Bkk time). Channel 7 will televise the match live. Earlier, the USA are due to take on Germany at 2pm (Bangkok time).

 

Meanwhile, the Pool B clash in Rio de Janeiro saw hosts and consecutive two-time Olympic champions Brazil come from behind to beat Italy 3-1 (23-25 25-15 25-15 27-25), while Japan pulled off a closely-contested straight-set 31-29 25-18 28-26 win over Serbia.