The Asian championship will serve as a useful warm-up for the Vietnamese women’s team prior to their campaign at the 29th SEA Games.

The preliminary round features the participation of 14 teams competing in a round robin tournament of four groups. Group A includes Kazakhstan, Hong Kong (China) and the Philippines, while reigning champions China, Japan and Australia have been drawn in Group B. Group D is made up of Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Iran and Maldives.

The top two finishers of each group in the first round will qualify for the second round, where they will compete in two groups of four to decide the quarterfinal pairs.

Vietnam, coached by Japanese expert Hidehiro Irisawa, will play their Group C opener with Sri Lanka on August 9, before taking on New Zealand and the Republic of Korea on August 10 and 11, respectively.

The championship, organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), will serve as a useful warm-up for the Vietnamese women’s team prior to their campaign at the 29^th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, scheduled between August 19 and 31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

At the previous competition two years ago, the Vietnamese women ended up in fifth place overall, while China claimed their 13^th title by beating the Republic of Korea 3- 0 in the final match.