Iranian Men's Team Prepare for Tokyo Olympic Qualifier

The Iranian team played three friendly matches with the Serbian team here from May 15 to 17. The host team came back from the first set deficit to outclass the guest team 3-1 (25-27,,25-20, 25-20,25-19). Then they lost the next two matches. The second match result was 1-3 (22-25, 20- 25, 25-20, 21-25). In the third match, the host tried their utmost, hoping to beat their opponents again, however their hope was broken by the stronger Serbian team, and the Iran team was beaten in a five set battle 24-26, 25- 22, 19-25, 25-22 and 23-25.

Serbian team has already got the ticket to the Olympic Games in Beijing. Igor Kolakovic the head coach of Serbia, brought some stars to Tehran, such as Kovacevic Nikola, Bojovic Dejan, Petkovic Valado, Samardzic Marko and Nikic Milos.

In the view of the Iran’s head coach Zoran Gajic, the three matches was a good chance for him to evaluate his young squad.

The Iranian team also had trained in two training camps. The first one was in Moscow of Russia, lasting 21 days and the second one was held in Tehran.

Taking part in the Tokyo Olympic Tournament are host Japan, Australia, Korea, Iran, Thailand, the four best-ranked teams at Asian Championship, Algeria from Africa, Argentina from South America and Italy from Europe. In the round-robin event which also doubles up as the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament, the winner plus the best Asian team (even if the winner is Asian) will qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games men’s volleyball tournament.