The twenty coaches together in Tijuana at the FIVB U19 World Championship
For the first time in the history of the age-group competition twenty sides, representing the five continents within the FIVB, have been divided in four pools of five teams to battle for the supremacy of the category for boys under 19 years old.
Appropriately for a new-look tournament, there will be new champions as 2011 winners Serbia failed to qualify. There will also be new silver medallists after Spain were unable to make it to Mexico.
Brazil are the most prolific medalist in the history of the competition with a total of seven, including one silver and one bronze, followed by Russia with five (two gold, two silver as Soviet Union and one bronze) and Italy with four (one gold, two silver and one bronze).
They are the only team to have completed a hat-trick of titles, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (1989), Porto, Portugal (1991), Istanbul, Turkey (1993) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (1995) and they will be keen to begin a new run of success this year.
Iran, who won the championship in 2007 have qualified as well and while Russia will provide fierce opposition in their pool, they will be confident that they can get past France, Finland and Rwanda.
The pool composition is as follows:
Pool A: Mexico, China, Belgium, Tunisia and Poland.
Pool B: Argentina, Cuba, Japan, China and Turkey.
Pool C: Russia, Iran, France, Rwanda and Finland.
Pool D: Brazil, United States, Egypt, Korea and Algeria.
To read more about this competition click on Youth World Championship 2013 M.
