Vietnam showed superb form to dominate the whole game, defensively and offensively, against Chinese Taipei.
Vietnam had never claimed a top-three finish in any Asian competitions. The national senior women’s team finished fifth at the 2015 Asian Senior Women’s Championship in China, while their women’s U19 team came within a whisker of taking bronze at the 2016 Asian Women’s U19 Championship, only to go down to hosts Thailand 1-3 in the third-place playoff.
Coach Irisawa Hidehiro said he was extremely happy to see his team win. He said the players had performed beyond his expectation. They had trained only for a week in preparation for this tournament and therefore, he had not anticipated this success.
In the final match later, Japan came from behind to beat host Thailand 20-25, 16-25, 25-19, 27-25, and 15-12 to take the gold medal.
