TEHRAN – Iran volleyball head coach Igor Kolakovic is optimistic that his team can finish first at the 2020 Men's Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament.

Iranian have been drawn in Pool A along with China, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan.

Pool B consists of Australia, Qatar, India and Korea.

Eight teams will strut their stuff in the Men’s Tokyo Volleyball Qualification 2020 at Jiangmen Sports Center Gymnasium, China from Jan. 7 to 12, 2020 to vie for the top honor and the lone ticket for the Tokyo 2020.

The volleyball training camp for the competition has kicked off in Tehran’s Azadi Hall.

“We have an important tournament ahead and know that it will be difficult task because all participant teams will take part at the competition looking to book a berth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” Kolakovic told the reporters.

“The year 2019 has been a busy calendar year for FIVB and we have little time for recovery,” he added.

“We have a lot of faith in our team and are hopeful of winning a berth at the Olympics, that’s why we are here. We have no choice but to win a place at Tokyo,” the Montenegrin coach stated.  

Iran will participate at the 2020 Men's Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament without warm-up games.

“We invited Tunisia, Egypt and Qatar to Iran but they didn’t accept our invitation. France also said they will host us in January and it doesn’t work,” Kolakovic concluded.

Iran will start the campaign with a match against Chinese Taipei on Jan. 7 and meet Kazakhstan and China in the following days.