Fourteen teams will strut their stuff in the “SMM” 11th Asian Boys’ U19 Yangon Aerodrome Volleyball Championship in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar between March 28 and April 5, vying for the top honour and four tickets to compete in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship in Bahrain from August 18 to 27.

Casting lots for the top-notch championship took place recently at the AVC Headquarters which saw all participating teams divided into four pools. Pool A comprises Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia. Defending and consecutive six-time champions Iran, Korea and Bahrain are in Pool B. Pool C consists of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and 2014 silver medallists Japan, with Kazakhstan joining China, and Chinese Taipei in Pool D.

The contest will be played in a preliminary round-robin stage in each pool with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the quarter-finals in Pool E and Pool F, while teams finishing third and fourth places will be relegated to the 9th-14th classification round in Pool G and Pool H.

The nine-day competition will be held at Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium in Hall B and C. With the seating capacity of 30,000, the stadium was used to stage many sport events earlier including the 2013 South East Asian Games, the Asean Para Games in 2014 and the 2016 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship.

Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia are likely to withdraw from the championship, claiming no reason for their decision.

At the previous edition three years ago in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Iran successfully defended their title to capture gold for six times in succession following a straight-set win over Japan in the final showdown. China finished third place after powering past Chinese Taipei 3-1 (24-26 25-19, 25-21 25-18).

The top four teams in this tournament will represent Asia to compete in this year’s FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship in Bahrain. However, if the host country could not make it to the top four, a total of five teams from Asia including hosts Bahrain will then join the fray in the world meet.

(Source: asianvolleyball.net)