The 14th Asian Women's Volleyball Championship continued the round-robin preliminaries on Thursday as strong teams all comfortably registered their opening victories in straight-set wins.

 

The host Thailand beat Australia comfortably with straight sets 25-13, 25-11, 25-12. With the victory and the withdrawal of Tajikstan, Thailand now tops Group A as there are only two teams in the pool.

 

Vietnam made a perfect take-off by easily winning over Sri Lanka 25-11, 25-9, 25-10 in Group B.

 

In Group C, Chinese Taipei crushed New Zealand in straight sets 25-19, 25-6, 25-13, while Kazakhstan won 25-10, 25-16, 25-12 over the Iranian team, which put on its debut in an international volleyball tournament after a 40-year absence.

 

Japan beat Uzbekistan comfortably by 25-8, 25-10, 25-11 in Group D.

 

The more thrilling encounter between Indonesia and South Korea in Group D saw the latter power past 25-17, 25-19, 25-11.

 

On Thursday, Japan takes on South Korea, Uzbekistan meets Indonesia, Kazakhstan plays New Zealand, Vietnam goes up against China, and Iran faces Chinese Taipei.

 

After the completion of the group round-robin preliminaries on Friday, the top two teams in each group will advance to classification matches for the quarter-finals which will be played following the round robin format. The remaining teams will compete in the classification 9th-13th round.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2007)