Thai women salvage pride with victory over Puerto Rico
WROCLAW: Although the Thai women’s team failed to get a ticket to Tokyo 2020, they finished their campaign in Pool A of the Olympic qualifying event in Poland on a high note on Sunday.
With only ranking points, prestige and experience at stake for both sides, the Thais beat Puerto Rico 21-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-18.
Both had lost to Serbia and Poland in their first two matches as Thailand finished third with one victory ahead of winless Puerto Rico.
In the other Pool A match, Serbia, the reigning world champions and 2016 Olympic silver medallists, defeated Poland 21-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-23 to secure their Tokyo 2020 berth.
“It was our last game, so we wanted to finish the tournament in a positive way,” Thailand captain Nootsara Tomkom said.
“We haven’t had an opportunity to play against Puerto Rico for a long time, so we didn’t know them and we didn’t know if we could beat them. Therefore, we tried to play hard.
“We felt tired after yesterday’s [Saturday] game, but eventually we won and we are very happy.”
Thailand coach Danai Sirwacharamaytakul: “We didn’t open this game well because of our players were tired after the long game yesterday [Saturday, when Thailand lost 3-2 to Poland]. We made a huge team effort to win this match.”
Thailand, who won silver at last year’s Asian Games, can still qualify for the 2020 Games through the continental qualifying event in January.
However, they must finish in the top eight of the Asian Championship in South Korea later this month to earn a place in the continental qualifying tournament.
The Thai men and women have never played at the Olympics.
Earlier on Sunday, China secured their presence in Tokyo 2020 to defend their women’s Olympic title after they shut out Turkey 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-18) at home in Ningbo.
China were amazingly solid on the net. Captain Zhu Ting, the Rio 2016 MVP, bagged a match-high 20 points with Zhang Changning adding another 16 points.
Following the women’s qualifying tournaments at the weekend, six nations — Brazil, China, Russia, the USA, Serbia and Italy — advanced to the Tokyo Olympics with Japan qualifying for the Games as hosts.
The last five remaining berths, to make up the 12-team Olympic line-up, will be filled in January through the continental qualifying tournaments.