Lausanne, Switzerland, August 11, 2017 - Hosts Iran scored their first win and China their second Friday as action continued in Pool A of the Asian qualifiers for the 2018 FIVB Men's World Championship at the 6,000-capacity Rezazadeh Stadium in the city of Ardabil.
Iran, who rested on Day 1 of the competition Thursday, crushed Korea 3-0 (25-10, 27-25, 25-18) with A. Ghafour scoring 13 points and M Ebadipour and F. Ghaemi adding another 11 each.
Previously China had scored their second win in the tournament, shutting out Qatar 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-22) with 14 points each from Jiang C. and Liu L.B.
This leaves the two winners of Friday's games as the only undefeated sides in the tournament.
Play continues Saturday in the five-team, single round robin tournament at Ardabil, with Qatar playing Kazakhstan at 15:30 local time (11:00 GMT) and Iran hosting China at 18:30 (14:00 GMT).
The top two teams of the Ardabil tournament qualify to the 2018 World Championship, which will be jointly hosted by Italy and Bulgaria next year.
Last month Japan and Australia claimed the other two berths available to Asian sides, through a qualification tournament held in Canberra.
Hosts Italy and Bulgaria, defending champions Poland have direct tickets to the FIVB's flagship tournament. France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Russia, Serbia, Finland, and Belgium from Europe plus Japan and Australia from Asia have already secured their berths through continental qualifiers.
Quick links - Volleyball:
FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship 2018
FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship 2018
FIVB.com - Volleyball
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