AVC Supremo Extols Iranian, Indian Volleyball Federations
In a session of AVC's board of directors in Thailand, Ji appreciated Iran and India for development of volleyball and great success in the 8th World Boys' Under-19 Championship ended in Suphan Buri, Thailand, on July 13.
Asian champion India finished runner-up in the world event and Iran, which ranked second in the Asian meet, stood third. Brazil retained the world title for the sixth time.
Sixteen teams competed in the Thailand-based event. BRAZIL AVENGES INDIA
Brazil avenged India in final and Asian runner-up Iran outclassed Czech Republic in the third-place playoff.
The world five-time champion Brazil clobbered India, giving the Asian champion a straight-sets 25-22, 26-24, 25-19 demolition in the final showdown.
On July 6, Brazil went down to India in a hard-fought four-set thriller in the group round-robin preliminaries. India stunned Brazil 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20).
Fired-up Iran was overjoyed as it performed superbly to topple the Czechs with a scintillating come-from-behind 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 victory.
Brazil became the 2003 World Boys' Under-19 Championship title holder for the sixth time.
The South American side landed its first world title in 1989 in the United Arab Emirates before stretching its aura of invincibility for another three successive times in 1991, 1993, and 1995.
Its nightmarish performances were in the 1997 and 1999 editions in Tehran and Riyadh where it produced fifth and seventh place finishes respectively.
However, it restored its pride in Cairo two years later to lift the world title after thrashing Iran in straight sets in the final showdown.
Individually, Russia and Iran shared two titles, with Iranian Mohammad Soleimani winning the Best Scorer Award and Moslem Mohammadizadeh the Best Receiver Award.
Russian Alexei Ostapenko grabbed the Best Server Award, with teammate Roman Danilov taking home the Best Spikier Award. INDIVIDUAL AWARDS Here below comes the list of players who received individual awards: 1. Best Scorer: No. 14 Mohammad Soleimani (Iran) 2. Best Spiker: No. 9 Roman Danilov (Russia) 3. Best Blocker: No. 12 Danilo Cruz de Carvalho (Brazil) 4. Best Server: No. 7 Alexei Ostapenko (Russia) 5. Best Digger: No. 12 Edgardo Hernandez (Puerto Rico) 6. Best Setter: No. 2 Kamaraj S. Ramaswamy (India) 7. Best Receiver: No. 5 Moslem Mohammadizadeh (Iran) FINAL RANKINGS Final rankings released by the organizing committee of the 8th World Boys' Under-19 Championships are:
1. Brazil 2. India 3. Iran 4. Czech Republic 5. Russia 6. Thailand 7. Puerto Rico 8. Australia 9. China, Egypt, Italy, Netherlands 13. Venezuela, Slovakia, Poland, Morocco.
On July 5, the matches started after a grand opening ceremony in the presence of Thailand's Prime Minister Banharn Silapa-Archa in the Silapa-Archa Gymnasium.