 Nakhon, Ratchsima, Thailand, September 28, 2008 -- After a great success of the staging of the inaugural Asian Men’s Cup Volleyball Championship last week, the Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall will become a battleground for another major competition – the first Asian Women’s Cup.
The October 1-7 tournament has been regarded as the Asian qualification for the next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix, where the final two places will be up for grabs.
The top-flight competition has attracted the continent’s top eight teams to vie for the top honour and four berths for the World Grand Prix. However, with Japan and China already making the cut, only two more slots will be decided in the upcoming one-week competition.
The Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) gave top eight teams from the last year’s Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship the green light to test their mettle in the Asian Women’s Cup Volleyball Championship.
Group A comprises Vietnam, Korea, Chinese Taipei and hosts Thailand, while Group B consists of China, second place at the last year’s Asian meet and bronze medalists at the recent Beijing Olympic Games, Australia, current Asian champions Japan and Malaysia, which replaced the withdrawn Kazakhstan.
On October 1, Vietnam take on Chinese Taipei in the curtain-raisers at 11am local time, followed by the match between China and Malaysia at 1pm, Thailand and South Korea at 4pm and Australia against Japan at 6pm.
The first three days will be the contest in the group round-robin preliminaries, with October 4 being the rest day. After the preliminaries, teams will be respectively ranked in each group for the next round’s cross-court group matches.
The group winners will next take on the opposite group’s fourth place and the second place facing the third place of the other group. Only top four teams will make it to the semi-finals, while the losers will compete in the 5th-8th classification round.
The group winners will next take on the opposite group’s fourth place and the second place facing the third place of the other group. Only top four teams will make it to the semi-finals, while the losers will compete in the 5th-8th classification round.
Meanwhile, a total of 12 teams will compete in the next year’s World Grand Prix, with the preliminary round being held from July 31 to August 16 including a stop in Brazil for the first time. Top five teams from the preliminaries will join hosts Japan to strut their stuff in the Final Round from August 19 to 23 in Tokyo.
Ten teams - Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Poland, Brazil, USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, China and Japan already made the cut for the World Grand Prix and only two more places will be decided here in the inaugural Asian Women’s Cup Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima during October 1 and 7 |