The 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games completed all their schedules with the festival on the 8th. South Korea ranked third in the overall rankings with 42 gold medals, 59 silver medals and 89 bronze medals. China ranked first with 201 golds, 111 silvers, 71 bronzes, and Japan (52 golds, 67 silvers, 69 bronzes).
Some sports have been cheered by fans, such as baseball, which won four consecutive games against Taiwan, and men’s soccer, which beat its fateful rival Japan to win the first three consecutive games in Asian Games, but others have not.
If you were asked to pick one of the sports that disappointed the fans of this tournament, I would say volleyball. In Korean volleyball history, the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games will be remembered as the worst-performing competition.
Let’s watch men’s volleyball first. The men’s volleyball team was confirmed to have failed to win a medal even before the official opening ceremony was held. The men’s volleyball team was shaken by losing to India in the preliminary round, but failed to advance to the top round after losing 0-3 to Pakistan in the round of 12.
It is the first time in 61 years that Korean men’s volleyball has failed to win a medal since the 1962 Jakarta Games. Since then, Korea has succeeded in winning medals for 14 consecutive times and has made a name for itself as an Asian tiger on the Asian stage, but this tournament has confirmed once again that it has fallen into an “Asian third class.” It is already losing competitiveness not only in international competitions but also in Asia, including third place in the 2023 Asian Volleyball Federation (AVC) Challenger Cup and elimination in the semifinals of the Asian Championship, which was held before the Asian Games, and everyone was able to confirm that everything had to be changed through this tournament.
South Korea later beat Bahrain, Thailand and Indonesia through the ranking match to rank seventh, the lowest ever by South Korea’s men’s volleyball at the Asian Games.
Coach Lim Do-heon said, “It was difficult to play because the left and right balance was not right in this tournament. Our middle blockers are vulnerable. But this is also an excuse. I have nothing to say. This is how good we are at international competitions. “I think we need to prepare a lot in the future, such as basic defense,” he bowed his head.
The women’s volleyball schedule began after the men’s volleyball disaster. The results of this Asian Games were even more important because they did not make significant results in recent international competitions. 스포츠토토
Cesar Hernandez Gonzalez, head coach of the women’s volleyball team, also said, “Thank you for sending me DMs and messages of support all the time.” I’m receiving a lot of messages of support, and I’ll show you a good performance at the stadium,” he said.
But it was a defeat that came back to them. In the first match against Vietnam, he got off to a shaky start by losing three, four, and five sets even after winning the first and second sets first. Perhaps this defeat was a game that showed that it was difficult for South Korea to advance to the semifinals. It is a huge difference whether you carry one win or one loss in the quarterfinals. Everyone prepared for the first match against Vietnam, considering it the most important match of the tournament, but all plans were broken from the first game.
Lee Da-hyun (Hyundai Engineering & Construction) said, “If I lose to Vietnam, it could be difficult to reach the semifinals, so I tried to win, but it’s too bad,” and Kang So-hwi (GS Caltex) said, “The players had mental problems.” I can’t do it with this kind of performance. We need to wake up,” he said. “I think we all did something stupid. I felt pathetic myself. I blamed myself a lot because I lost when it wasn’t a game to lose,” he said.
