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So India’s medal hunt came to an abrupt end in the quarters on Sunday the 21st in the Asian Games 2010 Indoor Men’s Volleyball.
Not that India is a serious medal contender at the continental games and with a world ranking of 38 , being placed seventh amongst Asian countries , a Quarter – Final birth should have been fair on the seedings but with lower ranked Thailand as their opponents in the knock out stage a bit more would have been great , but it wasnt to be as the Thai’s routed India three sets to nil !
Thailand somehow always do well in Asian Games Volleyball. In the last edition in Doha too , they made it to the Semi-Finals . India on the other hand too will try and equal up a creditable ‘best ever finish‘ in the games but it will be one huge task as they will most likely face China for the 5th place play-off , given we repeat our 25-15 25-13 25-20 drubbing of Qatar in the league stage. Just as a stat , India has finished fifth in ’98 , sixth in ’02 and tenth in the last edition.
League Stage Rd 1 : India 3 – 1 Kazaks : 24-26 25-23 25-18 25-21
League Stage Rd 1 : India 0 -3 Korea : 19-25 20-25 19-25
League Stage Rd 1 : India 3 – 0 Vietnam : 25-20 25-16 25-23
After a well calculated performance in Round 1 where in which overcoming the Kazaks was the prime objective India went on to the Round 2 QF Group Stage . Taking on mighty Japan , the Indians pulled off a famous victory here with a nerve cracking 25-20 25-19 21-25 26-28 15-13 fifth set victory ! Its worth noting that india were 5-9 and 9-11 down in the decider and very unlike India’s performance in the past we managed to stay calm to register a magnificent win. Also given the fact that we led the Japanese by two sets early on and then India had to squander of three match points in the fourth set , this was a remarkable feat of rising up after being brought down from a winning position.
QF Group Stage
| Pos. | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Points |
| 1 | Korea | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | India | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Japan | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Qatar | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
Had it not been for this weird format that Volleyball has in Asian Games 2010 this victory should have placed India in the medal play-off as India finished 2nd in their Group in Round 2. But a Quarter Final Group was a mere QF line up decider , making India play against the 3rd placed team Thailand , in the other gorup , for a place in the Semis , which we eventually lost!
Weird Tournament Format @ Asian Games
Issues apart , a look at the performance by Team India especially youngsters coming into the team like Naveen Raja , Sube Singh , Pradeep , Balwinder , Girinder and co. , all in the their early twenties , we hope as always to have some good years ahead in Volleyball !
