Top 5 Asian Teams to Participate in Athens Olympic Qualifiers

According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) announced via a letter from its president, Zhi Hongwei, to the volleyball federations of Australia, China, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Taipei, and Thailand that registered for the Athens Olympic qualifiers, that during the 23rd meeting of the AVC board held on July 16, 2003, in Bangkok, the organization of the pre-Olympic tournament in Asia was discussed. It was decided that the ranking of teams in the Asian Senior Championships would be considered for selecting teams participating in the Olympic qualifiers to be held in Japan. The main reason for this is that the AVC does not have enough time to arrange a pre-Olympic tournament for Asian teams between October and May, as the Asian Championships are scheduled for September 2003, followed by the World Cup in November, and then the domestic leagues until the first week of May 2004. Therefore, we requested the FIVB to allow the AVC to use the rankings from the Asian Senior Championships to select teams for the Olympic qualifiers scheduled for May 2004. Based on the FIVB's decision, Japan automatically qualifies as the host for both men's and women's Olympic qualifiers, and the other teams will be selected as follows: Men: The top 5 teams from the 12th Asian Men's Senior Championship. If Japan is not among the top 5, only 4 teams will be selected. Women: The top 4 teams from the 12th Asian Women's Senior Championship. If Japan is not among the top 4, only 3 teams will be selected.