Day 5–Chinese Taipei heads off Indonesia for tournament honours

Cebu City, Philippines, March 6, 2005 – Having already secured the two tickets on offer to advance to the second round of the 2006 Men's Volleyball World Championships on Saturday, Chinese Taipei and Indonesia fought out an exhilarating four-set match on Sunday at the first round tournament (Asia Pool C) in Cebu City with Chinese Taipei winning the competition with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 26-24) victory.
Pic: Chinese Taipei celebrate
The match was an effective final for tournament honours with over 5,000 passionate fans in attendance and it was Chinese Taipei, ranked 39th on the FIVB rankings, who prevailed over a side ranked two places lower than them.

Having won the first two sets comfortably Chinese Taipei were caught napping in the third when Indonesia pulled a set back as the match went past the hour mark. But Chinese Taipei soon rectified things again and it wasn’t long after that they were celebrating their first round tournament win.

The other result on Sunday saw the Philippines beat Tonga in a five-set thriller 3-2 (25-27, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12). It was the first time in the tournament Tonga had won a set, let alone two and despite suffering their fourth defeat in four matches they took plenty of positives out of the match in what is their first international FIVB tournament.

For the Philippines it was their second victory of the tournament, which was enough for them to finish in third place ahead of Macau and Tonga and send 5,500 local fans home happy.

Final standings for Asia Pool C: Chinese Taipei (second round qualifier), Indonesia (second round qualifier), the Philippines, Macau and Tonga.

Chinese Taipei will now head to Kazakhstan to play the hosts, Korea and another first round qualifier in a second round tournament in Almaty from June 17-19. Indonesia, meanwhile, plays India, China and another first round qualifier in a second round tournament in Chennai from June 24-26.

This Asia Pool C is the third 2006 Men's Volleyball World Championship tournament to have been played with England and Sudan having already qualified for the second round in earlier tournaments.

The next men’s tournament is an Africa Pool D Second Round Tournament in Cairo, Egypt from March 22-27 with Egypt, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan playing off for a ticket to the final round in Japan.