Thailand lose to Japan, face hosts Taiwan

In a Pool F encounter yesterday, Thailand went down 25-23 25-21 25-19 to Japan. It was the second straight defeat for the champions, who were beaten 3-1 by South Korea on Sunday.

The Japanese, who recently captured the Montreux Volley Masters crown in Switzerland, had beaten the Thais two times in less than a month. In the World Grand Prix in Macau, Thailand went down in straight sets to the World No 4 team for the fifthplace playoff.

Thailand fielded Taphapaipun Chaisri instead of Onuma Sittirak, who got injured during the match against South Korea. Despite putting up a brave fight against the Japanese, Thailand failed to get going at crucial junctures of the game.

Elsewhere, Kazakhstan beat Indonesia 3-0 (25-14 29-27 25-23) and Australia thrashed Sri Lanka 30 (25-13 25-22 25-16) in the classification for 9th14th places. In the pool roundrobin classification round for 1st8th places, South Korea beat Vietnam 251-2 26-24 25-23 in Pool F, while in Pool E, North Korea were leading Iran 10 (2511) at press time and China were due to take on hosts Taiwan late last night.

Today is the rest day. The knockout quarterfinals will be held tomorrow, with China, expected to beat Taiwan last night, taking on Vietnam and Taiwan playing Thailand. Japan are pitted against Iran and South Korea will play North Korea. The four losers in this round (quarterfinals) will be relegated to the classification round for the 5th8th places, while the winners will advance to the semifinals.

A win will give the Kingdom a rematch against Japan in the semifinals, while a loss means an early exit in the biennial championship.