Qatar’s national volleyball team took ninth place in the 2017 Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship, currently underway in the Indonesian city of Surabaya after beating Vietnam 3-1 in the ninth place playoff.
The y won 25-18, 25-22, 16-25 and 25-15 as The Maroon wrapped up a difficult tournament that saw four of their main players injured.
The team will kick off preparations for the Volleyball World League 2017 in Iran, which starts on Aug. 10. The squad will leave Jakarta and head to Turkey for a closed camp ahead of the World League.
Italian coach Massimiliano Giaccardi said achieving the ninth place was far from the team’s ambition but the injuries that hit the team made it extremely difficult.
Giaccardi said the focus now is on working to avoid the mistakes that emerged during the Asian tournament and to treat the injured players so that the team are physically and technically ready for the World League.
For his part, assistant coach Ali Ishaq expressed his satisfaction over the team’s performance in light of the difficult circumstances in terms of injuries that affected the performances.
Ishaq said the focus now is on the World League, which the coaching staff aims for the team to be ready for, adding that the Asian championship is over and preparations will start for the Volleyball World League 2017 in Iran.