TEHRAN – Iran started the 20th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 defeat to hosts South Korea on Sunday.

Team Melli were defeated by Korean team in straight sets (25-17, 25-9, 25-14) at the 13,500-seater Jamsil Indoor Stadium, the main competition venue in Pool A.

Iran will meet Hong Kong on Tuesday.

The 13 participating teams in the eight-day event comprise hosts Korea, Iran, Hong Kong China in Pool A, defending champions Japan, Kazakhstan, Australia and India in Pool B, Thailand, Chinese Taipei and New Zealand in Pool C and China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka in Pool D.

After the three-day pool plays, top two teams from each pool will advance to the round of the top 8 teams, split into Pool E and Pool F. Top two teams from Pool A and C will compete in Pool E, with teams from Pool B and D playing in Pool F. Teams finishing third and fourth places at the pool round-robin preliminaries will be relegated to classification round for 9th-13th places.

Advancing to Pool E and Pool F, teams will again 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.