It’s tough luck as Poles pip fighting Thais at the post
WROCLAW: Thailand suffered their second successive defeat in Pool A of the 2020 Olympic qualification in Poland on Saturday.
The Thai team put up a brave fight and pushed hard for their first pool win against Poland but the host team eventually edged it in a 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 26-28, 25-23, 15-11) thriller.
Onuma Sittirak was Thailand’s top scorer with 31 points while Malwina Smarzek was the highest scorer for Poland with 30.
It was Poland’s second win in the pool following their 3-0 victory over Puerto Rico on Friday.
In the first match in the same pool on Saturday, Serbia claimed their second win as they beat the Puerto Ricans 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-16).
The world champions also beat Thailand 3-0 on Friday.
Thailand were due to play Puerto Rico in the final pool match last night, while Serbia and Poland were to battle it out for the top spot.
There are six pools of four teams each. Following a round-robin competition, the winners of each pool will earn tickets to Tokyo 2020.
Unsuccessful teams in this round can still qualify for the Games through continental events next year. There will be 12 teams at the 2020 Olympics.
Thailand have never qualified for the Olympic volleyball tournament.
Coach Danai Sriwacharamaytakul praised his team for their brave effort.
“I have to thank all of my players, because they fought really hard in this game. During the match some mistakes happened, but we tried to eliminate them to fix all problems on court.
“It was a great game and a very valuable experience for our team to play against Poland here. We hope that we will keep this level of play tomorrow.”
Captain and star setter Nootsara Tomkom said, “It was a really tough match. Poland played at home and we knew that they are a very strong and tall team, which makes it very difficult to play against them.
“We faced them already twice this year, losing both matches and today we just played our game. I’m so happy that there were so many Thai people, who came here to support us and I would like to thank them. I hope that tomorrow [Sunday] we can play even better than today.”