Pre-tournament Sitting Volleyball favourites China (women) and Iran (men) got their 2018 Asian Para Games campaigns off to excellent starts with convincing victories in their first matches at the GBK Tennis Indoor centre in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday.
The Chinese women, who are bronze medallists from the 2018 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Championships in July, beat Mongolia 3-0 (25-2, 25-6, 25-7) while the reigning men’s Paralympic and world champions Iran were too good for Korea, winning 3-0 (25-9, 25-12, 25-14) in Pool B.
The game of the day saw Kazakhstan, who finished ninth at the 2018 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball Men’s World Championship, beat Iraq, who finished 14th in July, 3-2 (22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-8) in the Men’s Pool A.
Other results saw Indonesia women claim the honours in the opening match of the day beating Mongolia 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-13) followed by Iran women repeating their World Championship victory over Japan by winning 3-1 (31-29, 19-25, 25-19, 25-21).
The other men’s matches saw Indonesia beat Myanmar 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-22) in Pool A and China beat Japan 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-16) in Pool B.
A total of eight men’s and five women’s teams have entered the 2018 Asian Para Games Sitting Volleyball competition, which will take place at the GBK – Tennis Indoor Arena. The women’s teams are defending champions China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan and Mongolia. The men’s teams include 2014 winners Iran, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea and Myanmar who will play in two groups.
There are a total of 32 games across five days of action with three women’s and four men’s matches every day of the preliminaries, followed by a day of semifinals and classifiers and then the last day of finals.
The third Asian Para Games will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia from 6-13 October with Sitting Volleyball – being held from 7-11 October – expected to be one of the most popular events.
Photo 1: In a repeat of this year’s 2018 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball Women’s World Championship result, Iran beat Japan 3-1
Photo 2: Hosts Indonesia women beat Mongolia in the opening match of the Sitting Volleyball competition
Quick Links
World ParaVolley Asian Para Games Sitting Volleyball webpage
2018 Asian Para Games official website
Live Streaming – Asian Para Games 2018
Live Streaming – International Paralympic Committee