Suntory Sunbirds (Japan) and Jakarta Bayangkara Freshi (Indonesia), who beat Korean Air, the Korean professional volleyball men’s championship team, won the championship and runner-up at the 2023 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship.
Suntory Sunbirds won the championship by defeating Bayankara 3-1 (28-26 25-23 23-25 25-17) in the final of the tournament held at the ISA Sports City Stadium in Manama, Bahrain on the 22nd (local time). did.
Suntory’s main gun, Dmitry Mushalski (Russia), led the team to victory with 31 points. Alain from Cuba contributed 26 points. In Bayankara, Manabinejad (Iran) scored 22 points and Daudi Okello (Uganda) scored 21 points, but could not prevent defeat.
Suntory, who finished runner-up in 2021 and last year, won the championship this time. Suntory is the first Japanese club to win the tournament. As a result, Suntory will participate as an Asian representative at the 2023 International Volleyball Federation Men’s Volleyball Club World Championship to be held in India at the end of this year.
Suntory coach Kona Yamamura said in an interview with the Asian Volleyball Federation, “Through this tournament, I learned that Asian volleyball is at a high level.”
Suntory and Bayankara, who faced each other in the final, were both teams that defeated Korean Air in this tournament. Suntory beat Korean Air in the quarterfinals and Bayankara in the group stage.
Mushalski,메이저놀이터 who drew attention by evaluating Korean Air as the lowest level in the Japanese volleyball league, was selected as the best player of the tournament.
The Libero Award went to Raka Avinaya (Indonesia) from Bayankara, the Setter Award went to Masaki Oya (Japan) from Suntory, and the Middle Blocker Award went to Beral Nabel Abunabot (Qatar) from Qatar Police Sports Team and Hendra Kurniawan (Indonesia) from Bayankara. The Apogee Skyker Award was awarded to Shahdabu Yazd’s Amir Gapoor (Iran), and the Outside Hitter Award went to Suntory’s Alain and Bayankara’s Manabinejad.