Captain Tran Thi Thanh Thuy (left) in an attack by Vietnam against Cambodia during their SEA Games group round match. Vietnam will compete in Indonesia in the AVC Challenge Cup from June 18-25. (Photo thethao247.vn) The SEA Games silver medallist is one of 12 teams competing at the event inGresik, a city in East Java province.
Teams are divided into four groups, with Vietnam in Group D withUzbekistan and Mongolia.
Host Indonesia, Macau and the Philippines are in Group A, Hong Kong, ChineseTaipei and Iran are drawn in Group B, and India, Australia and Kazakhstan placein Group C.
According to Vietnamese officials, it is an easy group for Vietnam, which wonthe title of the recent Asian Women's Club Championship in Vinh Phuc province.
Vietnam and Uzbekistan have not met for years. The Uzbeks, however, did nothave good results in the 2022 Cup, where they won over Singapore and lost toMalaysia. Both Singapore and Malaysia have never beat Vietnam before.
Mongolia will bring all Khuvsgul Erchim Club's players who competed at theAsian Women's Club Championship earlier this month to Indonesia.
They finished at No 8 out of nine participating teams. Vietnam, under the nameof Sport Centre 1, made history with its first-ever victory on home soil.
Coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his 17 players have been training sinceMay 24 in Quang Ninh province. The team includes all SEA Games silver holdersand three youngsters, libero Nguyen Thi Kim Lien and spikers Vi Thi Yen Nhi andCao Thi Hoa Tham, who are promising talents.
They will leave for Indonesia on June 16.
The AVC Women's Challenge Cup is an international competition in Asia andOceania for unranked senior women's national teams of the members of the AsianVolleyball Confederation, the sport's continent governing body.
The tournament, founded in 2018, is held every two years. The first edition wasdue to take place in Hong Kong, but due to unforeseen reasons, it was not held.The second edition two years later was also cancelled because of concerns overthe COVID-19 pandemic.
The current and first champions are Hong Kong, who won its title in last year'stournament in Thailand. India and Malaysia finished second and third,respectively.
The winner of the Cup will receive a berth at the FIVB Women's Challenger Cup.
The men's AVC Challenge 2023 will also be organised in Chinese Taipei from July8-15.
A total of 17 teams competing in six groups will vie for only one slot in theFIVB Men's Challenger Cup.
Vietnam, not listed in the world ranking, are in Group E with world No 39Australia and Asian No 5 Pakistan.
Like the tournament for the female players, the men's event was also forunranked teams from Asia and Oceania, and held since 2018.
In last year's second edition event, Kyrgyzstan took the championship afterbeating Saudi Arabia in the final.
VNA
