The 2017 National Volleyball Championship is taking place at Khanh Hoa Provincial Sports Competition House. This tournament has been evaluated as an interesting and exciting playground where many quality volleyball players across the country show their skills.
The 2017 National Volleyball Championship is taking place at Khanh Hoa Provincial Sports Competition House. This tournament has been evaluated as an interesting and exciting playground where many quality volleyball players across the country show their skills.
This year, Khanh Hoa continued to be chosen to host the National Volleyball Championship thanks to the good organization of the 2016 championship. According to Dang Ha Viet, Secretary of Vietnam Volleyball Federation, Deputy Head of Organization Committee, the 2017 championship has some new features compared to the previous ones, such as larger number of participating teams and equal quality among teams. There is also a change in the mode of play at this year’s tournament. Specifically, instead of competing in groups in a single-elimination tournament, both male teams and female teams of the 2017 championship play in a round robin tournament and will be ranked based on points.
Nowadays, volleyball has been developed quite strongly in many big cities and provinces over Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City has the most representatives at this year’s championship with two male teams and one female team who have also been the reigning championships in men’s and women’s event. Hanoi, Can Tho and Soc Trang have one male and one female team each.
The first matches of the 2017 championship saw some surprises from the outstanding teams. In men’s event, Air Defense-Air Force (2016 second runner-up) had hard match against an inferior opponent, Soc Trang. The 2016 championship Ho Chi Minh City suffered an unexpected 82-80 defeat by the 2016 first runner-up Hanoi.
Despite the fact that the host province Khanh Hoa has no representative at the 2017 National Volleyball Championship, a lot of local spectators have gone to the sporting venue to watch and cheer up the participating teams. “Whenever the tournament is organized in Nha Trang, I have always arranged a time to watch the games, especially the ones of Ho Chi Minh City male team,” said Nguyen Trong Bao, a Nha Trang citizen.
Reportedly, volleyball in Khanh Hoa has developed quite well but spontaneously through the volleyball classes for children or movement tournaments. Hopefully, volleyball will be invested more strongly so that volleyball fans in Khanh Hoa will have chance to see their players at the large-scale tournaments.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N