Stage set for future volleyball stars to shine in FIVB U21 spectacle in Bahrain

Manama, July 17 (BNA): The future stars of men’s volleyball are set to showcase their talents from Thursday, July 18, as the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 gets underway in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Eight matches are on the cards on opening day at the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) and Bahrain Table Tennis Association arenas at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. All are invited to attend the games. Entrance is free. Kicking things off at 11.30am will be Cuba taking on Korea and Iran facing off with Tunisia. They will be followed at 2pm by Argentina playing Egypt and Russia battling the Czech Republic. At 4.30pm, Morocco and China play in one game while Poland and Brazil go head to head in the other. That then leads to the day’s final two contests starting no earlier than 7pm between Bahrain and Puerto Rico, and between Italy and Canada. Thursday’s games are part of the tournament’s first round, which continues until Saturday, July 20. As part of the lead-up to the world championship, a Press conference was held Wednesday evening at Gulf Court Hotel in Sanabis. Head coaches from the various national teams were on hand to speak about their preparations and expectations ahead of the start of play. Head coach Bakiewicz Michal of defending champions Poland said that his team is eager to get things going on the court. Despite having a completely different squad from the one that won the title two years ago, he is confident that his boys can mount a challenge once again. "I am very happy because we can start to play tomorrow," Michal said. "We have a very hard tournament. We have very strong teams in our group and we will need to play at a high level. We have respect for each team but I am sure we are ready to play 100 per cent." Brazil head coach Farinazzo Gavio Giovane expressed similar sentiments. He said: "I think all teams in this tournament are at the same level. We worked very hard to be here and we want to be in the final. I am very happy to be in Bahrain and good luck to all my colleagues." Iran head coach Ataei Nouri Behrouz commented: "I am very happy to participate in this tournament. We hope to have good matches and play together and learn new things about volleyball." All the teams expressed their delight to be in Bahrain for the world championships. "It is a big achievement for us to be here," Canada head coach Bravo Joao Paolo said. "We have a pretty tough pool to play in but I am looking forward to seeing what we can do. Our goal is to play our best and try our chance." Puero Rico head coach Negron Francisco added: "We are very honoured to be here. We will give our best effort and I hope my team plays really hard." Prior to Wednesday’s conference, the general technical meeting took place at the same venue. All technical issues relating to the world championship were discussed, including tournament rules and regulations. Amongst those in attendance were Executive Committee Chairman and BVA Vice-President Jehad Khalfan, Control Committee President Slobodan Milosevic from Serbia, and other officials from the tournament’s various committees. Khalfan welcomed all the visiting teams to the Kingdom of Bahrain and wished them success in the tournament. On his part, Milosevic thanked and praised Bahrain for their efforts in putting together the event at the highest level. In the preliminary round, the 16 participating under-21 national teams have been divided into four groups of four. Pool A consists of China, Morocco, Puerto Rico and hosts Bahrain, while Pool B is composed of Cuba, Argentina, Egypt and Korea. Pool C includes Russia, Iran, the Czech Republic and Tunisia, while Pool D features Italy, Canada, Brazil and Poland, who are the defending champions. The FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 is the 20th edition of the prestigious competition. Bahrain is hosting the event for the third time, having previously staged it in 1987 and 1997.