Chinese 'giants' hurl Thai girls through exit
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Hosts Thailand were catapulted out of the FIVB Girls' U18 World Volleyball Championship with a humbling straight sets win by world No 1 China at Nakhon Ratchasima's Chatchai Hall on Thursday night.
The 25-18 25-5 25-19 result smashed the Thai squad’s dreams of making the cut for the quarter-finals of the biennial top-flight competition. Instead, they were relegated to the play-offs for ninth to 16th places.
Hot favourites China, former three-time world champions and silver worlds medallists in the previous edition, used their height advantage in the form of the 199cm-tall Yuan Xinyue, whose devastating spikes went unanswered.
Despite putting up a gallant fight before a slim crowd of around 1,500, world No 19 Thailand, who finished a distant 13th in the previous edition, were dominated throughout, as China used their power and height at the net to bully the home spikers.
“Despite their height disadvantage, the Thai players still performed very well.
“Our trick was just to play as if we were training,” said Chinese head coach Dong Ruijun after the match.
Thai head coach Apichat Kongsawat pinpointed other weaknesses in his team: “We had a big size disadvantage as the Chinese are much taller than us. Also, we have been experiencing problems with our serving and attacking.
“Although we served better this time, it wasn’t good enough. We still have to do better than this in our next match. In terms of blocking, the Chinese did a good job. We will study the strategy and technique of our next opponents and make a match plan.”
In other last-16 knockout games, Japan crush Egypt 3-0 (25-11 25-7 25-16), Brazil rallied past Italy 3-2 (18-25 25-14 25-23 22-25 15-7) and Poland outclassed Puerto Rico 3-1 (25-21 26-2422-25 27-25).
Also advancing were USA, who gunned down Taiwan 3-0 (25-19 25-11 25-17), Dominican Republic who stunned title-holders Turkey 3-1 (16-25 30-28 25-1825-17), Peru who trounced Slovenia 3-0 (25-19 25-14 25-21), Serbia who overcame Greece 3-1 (25-22 25-19 20-25 25-16).
