TEHRAN – Iran will have a tough job in the 14th edition of the Asian Women’s U18 Volleyball Championship.

Perennial champions Japan will return to defend their crown when the campaign will be held at Nakhon Pathom Sports Centre Gymnasium in Nakhon Pathom from June 6 to 13.

The top-flight championship serves as the Asian qualification tournament for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U19 World Championship, with 11 teams in total vying for top honor and four berths up for grabs for the biennial world meet as AVC representatives.

Earlier, this tournament was due to be hosted by Uzbekistan, but due to some unforeseen reasons, Nakhon Pathom has replaced Tashkent as the host city of the eight-day championship, also adjusted to Asian Women’s U18 Championship as approved by the AVC Board of Administration in line with the FIVB’s decision in March 2022 to change the age category of the tournament by moving it from U18 to U19 in order to equate it with the Boys’ U19 World Championship.

The 2020 edition was also due to take place in Nakhon Pathom, but had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, asianvolleyball.net reported.

The 11 participating teams comprise hosts Thailand, Korea, Iran, Australia and Uzbekistan in Pool A and Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, India and Philippines in Pool B.

Iran will begin the tournament on June 6 with a match against Australia.

All participating teams have been split into Pool A and Pool B. Teams will compete in pool round-robin preliminaries, with top two teams in each pool advancing to the cross semifinals. Teams finishing 3rd and 4th in each pool will next strut their stuff in the classification round for 5th–8th places, while those finishing 5th and 6th in each pool will fight for 9th, 10th and 11th places.

The championship had already been held for 12 times, but only two countries have captured the titles in this age-group championship. Japan emerged as the strongest team to clinch eight titles including seven in succession, while China had won the remaining four editions.