VOLLEYBALL
Thais conquer Japan to win title
The Sunday Nation

Thai volleyball players and their trainers celebrate after the team defeated Japan to win the 17th Asian Senior Women

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's women volleyball players made the country proud last night by stunning world No 3 Japan to reign supreme in the 17th Asian Senior Women's Championship for only the second time.

The Thai team, ranked No 13 in the world, included six of their starting line-up that won their historic Asian crown in 2009 in Hanoi. These included powerful attacker Onuma Sittirak, Wilavan Apinyapong and Pleumjit Thinkaow.

Japan, silver medallists at the London Games and former three-time Asian winners, fielded star spikers Saori Kimura and Miyu Nagaoka.

With more than 6,000 home fans cheering them, the Thai ladies performed beyond expectation. They took the first two sets 25-22 25-18 and continued their exceptional form to capture the third 25-17. After the win, the Thai players thanked spectators by giving them a "wai" while prostrating on the floor. They ran to hug one another and all, including coaches, made a circle and danced. Some had tears in their eyes.

For the victory, ThaiBev gave them Bt1 million as a bonus, and politician Suwat Liptapanlop gave another Bt500,000.

Noosara Tomkom won the Best Setter award while Korat-born Wilavan Apinyapong captured the Most Valuable Player prize.

It was the second Asian title the Thai team had won. Last year, they captured the AVC Cup.

Thailand have already made their mark in this biennial competition, which drew a record 16 teams including debutantes Mongolia and Myanmar, following their stunning 3-2 victory over mighty China, the defending and 12-time winners, in the semi-finals on Friday.

About 5,200 home fans thronged into the Chatchai Hall in Nakhom Ratchasima to witness the team's resounding success. As a result, demand for tickets to watch the Thai spikers yesterday soared. Only 4,800 tickets for seats plus 400 for people to stand could be sold.

Some locals were so desperate to ensure they would get tickets that they arrived at Chatchai Hall at 2am. By 5am, around 2,000 fans were there, queuing in the rain, before tickets went on sale at 9am.

Just half an hour after the booth opened, all tickets were sold out, leaving several thousand fans having waited for nothing. Upset, they thronged at the iron gate in front of the venue, shouting to officials in charge to release more tickets, but to no avail.

Despite tight security with police and guards, some fans were moody and tried to break down the gate. But after a talk with provincial officials, they agreed and move to the media room to watch a live broadcast on a big screen. About 400 fans had to draw lots to get standing tickets.

-- The Nation 2013-09-22

Conquer?

Oh the irony. Well played, great victory.

Watched almost every game. Thai team is great. Good on you, girls. Congratulations!

Well done girls,you've made your country proud.

Great for women of Thailand. Now for the men to do something of substance in the sporting world apart from promoting thuggery.

Well played, girls.

Great for women of Thailand. Now for the men to do something of substance in the sporting world apart from promoting thuggery.

The man have already done their part although you might have missed it as they looked like ladies.

See the movie “the iron ladies”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9lLeQPbH1Q

Great for women of Thailand. Now for the men to do something of substance in the sporting world apart from promoting thuggery.

The man have already done their part although you might have missed it as they looked like ladies.

See the movie “the iron ladies”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9lLeQPbH1Q

Donning a frock is the best chance a Thai boy would ever have of winning any international sporting competition.

Congratulations to Team Thailand. (I guess it's too much to hope that it was 1m Baht each.)

The hind legs of the elephant. Where would Thailand, indeed any country, be without them? First Ratchanok, now these young women. Nice to have a feel-good story for a change.

The semi-final match against China was brilliant.

Japan seemed out of sorts in the final.

Onuma (#6) is amazing.

Congrats to the Thai women's volleyball team, and to Korat for hosting the event.

Congratulations to the team. Great news for Thailand.

Watched all the games and overall they were the form team. Very well done the girls and i hope you go on to become World Champions !

Congratulations to the Thai team.

Congratulations and Thanks to that team of ladies. They have great spirit and clearly play well.

Watched all the games and overall they were the form team. Very well done the girls and i hope you go on to become World Champions !

incase you havnt read my post[gen.forum] our girls beat china in the semi's who for the first time in 38yrs have not been in the final.i wish i could have had them all at my house last night to give them a big hug.

did they walk from the stadium to yammo after?

The hind legs of the elephant. Where would Thailand, indeed any country, be without them? First Ratchanok, now these young women. Nice to have a feel-good story for a change.

Yes, I agree. The women of this country are indeed the most impressive gender. This country would be nowhere without them. They possess most of the common sense, are willing to do most of the hard work, and have the largest brains. I find alot of Thai women to be impressive in their spirit, attitude, willingness to do what needs to be done, and support of their families. The men of Thailand could learn alot from them. It will start when Thai men admit that the women are far superior to them, and when the sons of Thai families stop getting coddled, and spoiled. The Thai girls need to be taught that they are superior to their brothers. They basically run the country, behind the scenes of course. The men would be nowhere without them. This I believe to be a fact.

I became a fan of this team last year, when they fell just short of the big prize. I never thought I could get so excited about a minor sport played by women, but these ladies stole my heart. Except for a surprising stumble against Kazakhstan, the women just got stronger every match. The five sets against China were an epic struggle, and there was some concern about they might have left their best game on the floor after that.

Next night, they came out strong and very physical against the Japanese team, who just seemed to have no answer to the strong play by the Big Three: Wilavan (MVP!), Onuma, and Pleumjit. It was total domination in every aspect of the game.

Thailand can be truly proud of these young ladies. If you watch all of their televised matches (Can they ever come to play in Chiang Mai, PLEASE?) you feel like you know them. Let's hope they can go to Japan and shock the world in November.

Fantastic!

Genuine good news. A great achievement, and it was specially good to see the support and enthusiasm of the ticket-buying public. The stadium seating as nearly full of supporters having a great time.

(A stark contrast to the depressingly empty sheds at Thai football matches.

How fantastic and I wish I'd seen it. All the complimentary comments about Thai women, I endorse. What a great example of an amazing asset to a country. In many more ways than one. No wonder so many men from so many countries come here to try or get one.

Beating a sporting superpower like China is a huge feather in their cap. Like beating the Americans at swimming.

Yes it is a pity about the men. What can you say. If they had the proper backing and the right incentive they could do well in things

other than kick boxing. Like the footy.

Congratulations ladies.

Not much to say as I didn't see it, just agree with what has been said by those with more knowledge.

Well done.

A nonsense post berating the USA/NFL for no reason at all has been removed as well as a reply. The topic is about volleyball, and Thailand won the tournament, NFL has nothing to do with topic.

The hind legs of the elephant. Where would Thailand, indeed any country, be without them? First Ratchanok, now these young women. Nice to have a feel-good story for a change.

Yes, I agree. The women of this country are indeed the most impressive gender. This country would be nowhere without them. They possess most of the common sense, are willing to do most of the hard work, and have the largest brains. I find alot of Thai women to be impressive in their spirit, attitude, willingness to do what needs to be done, and support of their families. The men of Thailand could learn alot from them. It will start when Thai men admit that the women are far superior to them, and when the sons of Thai families stop getting coddled, and spoiled. The Thai girls need to be taught that they are superior to their brothers. They basically run the country, behind the scenes of course. The men would be nowhere without them. This I believe to be a fact.

I agree. The men would be nowhere without their sisters.

Of course sometimes it can work the other way too....

Edited September 22, 201312 yr by bigbamboo

What a great achievement, really nice to see and congratulations to the team and Thailand.

Congratulations, Team Thailand! Well done.

The hind legs of the elephant. Where would Thailand, indeed any country, be without them? First Ratchanok, now these young women. Nice to have a feel-good story for a change.

Yes, I agree. The women of this country are indeed the most impressive gender. This country would be nowhere without them. They possess most of the common sense, are willing to do most of the hard work, and have the largest brains. I find alot of Thai women to be impressive in their spirit, attitude, willingness to do what needs to be done, and support of their families. The men of Thailand could learn alot from them. It will start when Thai men admit that the women are far superior to them, and when the sons of Thai families stop getting coddled, and spoiled. The Thai girls need to be taught that they are superior to their brothers. They basically run the country, behind the scenes of course. The men would be nowhere without them. This I believe to be a fact.

I agree. The men would be nowhere without their sisters.

Of course sometimes it can work the other way too....

The men would all still be in the bar without their mother's....

Just read in the Wall Street Journal Asian edition that the team walked the 10 kms back to their hotel with their supporters.

What a very nice touch - well done to all of them and their coaches and trainers.

And I'll bet that all the politicians are pissed off that they missed the chance to be photographed with them amongst the people!

I realize that my relevant post about the context about the Thai women Volleyball team in context with the rigid struggles of Thailand's education system has been deleted,

I dint know what was so off topic about it. My point was just simply that kids and their fragile personalities that are bombarded with face and honor oriented academic EXPECTATIONS, should instead be empowered to go out and be exposed to more sports activities instead of sitting on their behinds all day wasting time...

The Female Volleyball team set a very good example unlike for example their make badminton counterparts who would brawl in front if an international audience....

Very enjoyable game, great effort.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I can't heap enough praise on their inspirational effort. Well done ladies!!!. I heard they might be coming to samui for abit of R&R does anyone know?