Thailand overpowered Iran in straight sets (25-14, 25-15, 25-13) in Pool B of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Japan 2018 Asian Qualifiers on Wednesday.

World No.10 South Korea, Asian silver medalists Thailand, DPR Korea, Vietnam and Iran take part in the single round-robin competition, with only the two best-ranked teams making the cut for the next year’s World Championship Finals in Japan.

“I have just taken over the position as the head coach for the Iran women’s national team for three months. After taking part in the Asian Senior Women’s Championship in the Philippines, we decided to renew the composition of the young players and youth team from age groups with 60% of them to play here. We are working with young generation,” Iran coach Mostafa Shojaei told fivb.org.

“This is the tournament that Iran would focus on the young players. So, the standard of Thailand and Korea is much higher than us, but we just want to gain much more experience and prove ourselves in Asia,” he added.

A total of 24 teams will contest the next year’s FIVB Women’s World Championship Finals in Japan from September 30 to October 21, 2018.

The teams which have already qualified for the top-flight championship included host Japan, defending world champions the U.S., Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Italy, Azerbaijan, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Brazil.