HANGZHOU, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Men's volleyball preliminary round of the 19th Asian Games kicked off on Tuesday in Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Deqing respectively, with Kazakhstan downing Kyrgyzstan 3-2 in the nail-biting opener in the morning.
Kyrgyzstan took the first set 25-18, before Kazakhstan fought back to win two sets. Kyrgyzstan leveled by prevailing 25-18 in the fourth. In the decisive set, Kazakhstan emerged better in blocks and serves to beat Kyrgyzstan 15-11.
Vladislav Kunchenko and Vitaliy Vorivodin played vital roles for Kazakhstan, with each contributing 20 points.
"We are positive. We won an important game against our main rivals in the group. Now we have a match with China. We will try to play well, to win, to do everything possible to win," said Kazakhstan's Nodirkhan Kadirkhanov.
In Deqing, Japan sealed a comfortable 3-0 victory over Afghanistan. After taking the first set 26-24, Japan had little difficulties and won the following sets 25-22, 25-8.
"Japan are one of the top teams in the world. It's a game, so one side will win and one side will lose," said Afghanistan coach Mohammad Sabir Noori.
"We played well in the first and second sets, but we don't have experience at this level of competition, that's why we lost," he added.
Elsewhere, Bahrain beat Nepal 3-1, Pakistan eased past Mongolia 3-0, India thrashed Cambodia 3-0, Thailand defeated Hong Kong, China 3-0, Indonesia overcame the Philippines 3-0. ■
