After beating Kazakhstan 3-1 at its last top-eight round-robin match Thursday, Japan seized the title for the 14th Asian women's volleyball championshipin Thailand's northeastern province Nakhon Ratchasima.
Japan outweighed Kazakhstan 22-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-16 to pin the final triumph.
Kazakhstan stunned its opponent at the opening set by launching a brilliantly fierce offensive and finally scored a 25-22 victory.
Kazakhstan's momentum held on to the first half of the second set, but Japan regained the initiative after that by staging a strong counteroffensive and found no problem taking advantage over its rival in the other three sets.
Thus, with a string of seven wins in the 1st-8th finals round, Japan grabbed the crown from the defending and consecutive 10-time title-holder China.
The top-eight round plays a round-robin format, which means the participating teams will face the same rival just once. The title will be given to the team with highest points, collected on the way that winner for each match played gets two points while loser gets one point.
China's unlucky fate was largely doomed after the surprise loss to Japan 0-3 on Sunday. It faces the host team in another match on Thursday. A victory for China will put it at the second place and Thailand at the third.
Opening on Sept. 5 at The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima's MCC Hall, the nine-day, 13-team Asian championship is regarded as a qualification meet for the Japan-hosted World Cup in this November, the Japan-hosted Olympic Games Qualification Tournament next May and the 2008 World Grand Prix.
Besides Olympic hosts China and Japan, only the top two teams from the Asian meet will make the cut for these three international games above.
Source: Xinhua
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