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Thailand Beats Japan, Reaches Tianjin Final 🌍
Sunday's final decides Asia's only direct place at the Los Angeles Olympics. Volleyball World's competition page still lists both semifinals as upcoming.
Thailand beat Japan 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 25-20) in the first semifinal of the AVC Women's Continental Championship in Tianjin on Saturday, and will play on Sunday for Asia's only direct place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The scoreline is Thai. The Bangkok Insight and Daily News both published all four sets on Saturday evening in Bangkok, and Flashscore carries the aggregate. No federation and no rights holder has published either figure.
China against Iran was due at noon UTC and was still marked upcoming hours after it should have finished. Sofascore has China through 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-19). We are printing that as an aggregator's number rather than as a result, because nobody who runs the tournament has confirmed it.
Two semifinals have been played at a tournament that hands out a continent's Olympic place, and on Saturday afternoon the tournament's own results page carried neither of them.
The Champion Goes Straight to Los Angeles
Twelve women's teams go to the Los Angeles Games. The United States is in as host, the five continental champions take one place each, and the rest come through the 2027 World Cup and the world ranking.
Ramon Suzara is the president of the Asian Volleyball Confederation. This is from the confederation's pools announcement of 28 July.
The gold medalists will earn direct qualification to the LA 2028 Olympic Games, while the top three teams will qualify for the 2027 FIVB Volleyball World Championship.
Three sources give three versions of what the beaten teams get. The FIVB says the three highest-placed reach the 2027 World Cup, Suzara's announcement says the top three reach the World Championship, and Volleyball World says both finalists. All three are in the sources and none of them is in this copy as a number.
Everybody else in Tianjin now waits on that competition, whichever one it turns out to be, or on a world ranking that does not close until the 2028 Nations League preliminary phase is over.
Thailand Has Beaten Korea and Japan in Four Days
Thailand arrived as the defending champion with three continental titles. It swept Korea 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-21) in Thursday's quarterfinal, Pimpichaya Kokram scoring 19 points on 18 kills and Sasipaporn Janthawisut 16.
Chatchu-On Moksri plays outside hitter for Thailand. She gave this to Volleyball World after the Korea match.
I think that we played better today than before. We always try to stay calm and play without pressure, and I think that today we managed to do it. Korea have a good team and they fought until the end.
Japan Is Out of the Direct Route
Japan had swept Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-13) in the other quarterfinal, Yukiko Wada scoring 19 points on 17 kills and Mayu Ishikawa 14. It won a set 33-31 against Korea on 23 August and never went past 21 in the quarterfinal.
Korea went out to Thailand and is on the world-ranking route now. Japan is on it too, and so is everybody in Tianjin who is not in Sunday's final, whatever colour of medal they take home on the way.
One direct place for a continent that holds China, Japan, Korea and Thailand is a narrow door, and two of those four are already on the wrong side of it.
The final is Sunday at 10:45 UTC and the bronze medal match at 07:15. Thailand beat Korea without a fourth set and Japan without a fifth. We expect Sunday to be the first time in Tianjin that Thailand is taken to five.
