TEHRAN – Thailand overpowered Iran 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-13) at the 20th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship on Thursday.

Iran, who started the competition with a loss to South Korea and a win against Hong Kong, will play Chinese Taipei in Pool E on Friday.

Advancing to Pool E and Pool F, teams will play a round-robin format and will be ranked 1-2-3-4 respectively up to their performances at the end of this round. Only top two teams from Pool E and Pool F will enter the cross semi-finals, while teams finishing 3rd and 4th places of both pools will contest the 5th-8th playoff encounters, asianvolleyball.net reported.

Semi-finals, 5th-8th playoffs and 9th-12th playoffs will be held on Saturday, August 24, while the finals, the awards presentation and closing ceremony will take place the day after.

More importantly, the Championship also serves as the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament, which will see top eight teams, except the Tokyo 2020 hosts Japan and qualified China, make the cut for the January 6-12 event. Only the eventual winning team in the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament will join the other 11 teams in the Tokyo 2020.