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Picture Credit: Twitter

India qualified for the men’s under-21 World Championship, as they won the silver at the Asian U20 volleyball championship as they lost 12-25, 19-25, 25-22, and 15-25 against Iran in the final in Riffa, Bahrain on Monday.


India won the silver after a gap of 20 years, whereas the Irani team has seven golds in the tournament, the most by any team. India had previously bagged two silvers having lost to South Korea in 1994 and Iran in 2002. India captain Dushyant Singh received the best blocker award, while Karthikeyan was awarded the best libero trophy by the Asian Volleyball Confederation.


Iran was the dominant team from the opening tip as they won the first two sets 25-12, 25-19 respectively with ease. As the historic gold medal was slipping away from them, India came in the third set. India took an early 8-6 lead and extended it to 16-12 and then 24-17 as they forced Iran into the fourth set. The Iranians reverted back with another incredible run as they scored five straight points to wrap up the gold medal 25-22.


For India, however, this is their first medal in the event since their bronze medal finish in 2010. With this medal, India now has six medals with 3 silver and 3 bronze apiece, at the continental tournament. Whereas in the bronze-medal match, Thailand had a disappointing campaign this tournament. 


Korea, the silver medallists from the previous edition in 2018, defeated the rivals and maintained the third place achieved in Riffa four years ago as they pulled off a convincing three-set victory. After a hard-fought first set 31-29 win, the Koreans outclassed Thailand for the comfortable second and third sets 25-16, 25-14 to finish third with Thai finishing in at the fourth position.