Finishing fourth at the 2018 Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship, Sanest Khanh Hoa created an indelible hallmark in Vietnam's history of volleyball.
Finishing fourth at the 2018 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship, Sanest Khanh Hoa created an indelible hallmark in Vietnam’s history of volleyball.
The loss of Sanest Khanh Hoa to Wapda from Pakistan in the 2018 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship play-off, taking place in Myanmar on August 6, made the volleyball supporters of the Vietnamese representative to be both proud and regretful. Sanest Khanh Hoa played the important match with the absence of key players Tu Thanh Thuan and Huynh Trung Truc who had left the tournament sooner for the Vietnamese national volleyball team’s training camp.
Although not playing with their best formation, Sanest Khanh Hoa with many young players displayed their outstanding efforts and competence when facing a strong team of the continent. Dinh Nhu of Sanest Khanh Hoa was selected as the best middle blocker of this championship. This was a merit award for Dinh Nhu and also a consolation prize for the efforts of Sanest Khanh Hoa throughout the tournament.
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Sanest Khanh Hoa, the champion of Vietnam National Volleyball Championship 2017, was an underdog at the Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship 2018. However, the representative from Vietnam astonished the tournament when defeating many strong teams like Long Power (Taiwan), Sichuan (China), and Canberra (Australia).
This was an unexpected result of Sanest Khanh Hoa, especially when the team did not show a good performance at the first round of the Vietnam National Volleyball Championship 2018, which caused them to not be qualified for the finals. In the play-off with Pakistan’s representative, the players of Sanest Khanh Hoa showcased their resilience and competence. Vietnam’s representative caused the Pakistani team to have a hard-fought match and took the match into the fifth and deciding set. In the decider, when the sides were level on 16 points each, Wapda snatched two points to win the match and the bronze medal.
Finishing fourth in the first time taking part in a continental level tournament was a quite good result of Sanest Khanh Hoa. This result has also been a pride of Vietnam’s volleyball in such a large scale tournament.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
