VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam National Volleyball Championships opened on March 16, with up to 21 foreign players.

The annual event, funded by the PetrolVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), brings together 12 strong men’s and women’s teams from across the country. They are divided into groups A and B and compete for total cash prizes of VND432 million (US$20,700) in a two-leg round robin tournament.

The first leg will take place from March 16 to 23, with Group A teams playing in Quang Ninh province and Group B teams playing in Hai Duong province.

The top two teams from each group in the first round will play each other at the VND340 million (US$16,320) Hung Vuong Volleyball Cup at the Viet Tri gymnasium in Phu Tho province between March 27 and 30.

The 24 participants will later compete in the second leg of the tournament from November 10 to 17 in Ho Chi Minh City, to decide the top eight teams to play in the final round in Dak Lak province from November 22 to 25.

Volleyball is being quickly professionalized in Vietnam, only after football, the “king sport” in Vietnam. This sport has attracted many foreign players.

The ongoing tournament has up to 21 foreign players. The most outstanding faces are Gatin Olekiey from Ukraine of Sanest Khanh Hoa club and Peng Jian from China of the Military Zone 5 team. Both of them are nearly two meter tall and have good techniques.

Up to ten players come from Thailand, one of the best countries for volleyball in Southeast Asia.

This year each team is permitted to use only one foreign player. However, Vietsovpetro club uses two Russian-origin players because one of them Ira Le Kim Nhung has been granted the Vietnamese citizenship. The other is Anastasia.

The best striker in Southeast Asia, Ngo Van Kieu of Sanest Khanh Hoa, is no longer the tallest volleyball player (1.96m) in Vietnam, because Long An club’s Nguyen Ngoc Thang is 1.98m tall.


S. Tung