Brazil and Bulgaria topped their pools at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship in Bahrain after defeating their main opponents, Italy in Pool B and Poland in Pool C, respectively, in Sunday’s last matches of the first pool stage in Manama. Pools A and D are next up, during Sunday’s evening session, starting at 17:00 local time (14:00 UTC).
Men's U21 World Championship 2023
Bulgaria, Brasile in testa alle classifiche dei Mondiali U21
Egitto e Canada ottengono le prime vittorie in Bahrain 2023
Pubblicato 01:59, 09 lug 2023
Bulgarian rising star Aleksandar Nikolov spikes
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Pool B
Brazil’s Thiery Oliveira in attack
Outserving the opponents by seven aces to none, Brazil celebrated a 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18) victory over Italy in the deciding clash for the first place in Pool B to top the final standings on a perfect 3-0 win-loss record and leave the southern Europeans in second on 2-1, with both sides moving forward to the top-eight tier for the second pool stage of the tournament. Spiking at a 55% success rate, Brazilian outside hitter Arthur Bento, a 2022 South American U21 Championship Dream Teamer, who was part of the senior men’s national team during the first two competition weeks of Volleyball Nations League 2023, once again led his squad to success, putting away the match high of 19 points, including an ace and a block. His teammate in the middle, Thiery Oliveira, a Dream Teamer at the 2022 Pan American Cup, impressed with six kill blocks towards an 11-point tally. Edwin Arguelles Sanchez was Italy’s best scorer on 12 points.
Egypt’s Zyad Mohamed in action
In the last game of the Pool B programme, Egypt delivered a 3-1 (25-13, 25-20, 17-25, 25-15) win over Mexico, their first of the tournament and enough for the third place in the final pool standings. Winless Mexico finished bottom-fourth as both teams continue their participation in the lower-eight tier of the second pool stage. Egypt’s opposite and captain Zyad Mohamed and outside Hamza Awad contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively, to the victory, while Mexico’s Leonardo Maldonado Diaz was the best scorer of the match with 16 points.
Pool C
The Bulgarians rejoice
In a remake of the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship final, Bulgaria and Poland put up a spectacular five-set battle to determine the Pool C winners in a direct clash between two unbeaten teams. The southern Europeans managed to stay undefeated after celebrating a 3-2 (25-23, 26-28, 25-17, 22-25, 15-11) victory, leaving their central European opponents in the runner-up position on a 2-1 win-loss record. Both will continue the race for the medals among the top eight of the tournament. Aleksandar Nikolov, a Dream Teamer at both the U19 World Championship in 2021 and the U20 European Championship in 2022, and an important player of the senior men’s national team, was once again the best scorer of the match. He produced an amazing seven aces, in addition to three kill blocks and 17 successful spikes to top the charts on 27 points. Spiking at a 63% success rate, his cross-court teammate Vladimir Garkov, a Dream Teamer of the 2019 U17 European Championship, added another 21 points, including three aces. Opposite Aliaksei Nasevich led Poland with 22 points, including four blocks and two aces.
Canada’s Brendan Mills on the block against India’s Aman Kumar
Il Canada ha festeggiato la sua prima vittoria del torneo e si è classificato terzo nella Pool C dopo aver sconfitto l'India per 3-1 (18-25, 29-27, 25-20, 25-22). Essendo le ultime due squadre nella classifica finale della pool, entrambe continueranno la loro partecipazione al Campionato del Mondo U21 nelle partite per la distribuzione dei posti dal nono al 16°. L'India ha dominato il primo set, ma dopo aver perso per poco il secondo ai tempi supplementari, ha lasciato che il Canada prendesse il controllo dei due successivi e vincesse l'incontro grazie a ben 17 blocchi di kills durante la partita. L'opposto Brendan Mills ha contribuito con sei di questi blocchi a un bilancio di 22 punti, mentre l'esterno Kaden Schmidt ha guidato la squadra con 23 punti. L'esterno indiano Aman Kumar ha raggiunto la vetta della classifica con 26 punti.
