Iran
The players will now begin a training camp, their eighth, under the leadership of head coach Mitra Shabanian. The first training camp, held at the end of April, was conducted with 30 players with the final selection process taking place after a series of rigorous training camps. The eighth round of training started on Sunday and will run until August 20 at the Olympic Academy camp.
The team also held a one week training camp in Baku, playing five friendly matches against the women’s team of Azerbaijan. “The camp helped us to find out our weak and strong points,” said coach of Iran, Shabanian.
The current line-up of players is as follows: Farank Babolian, Shabnam Aikhani , Elham Fallah , Farnoush Sheikhi , Mina Roosta , Pooran Zare , Nillofar Ebrahimi , Nillofar Rashidi , Mahsa Saberi , Mahsa Kadkhoda, Mahtab Rahmani , Maedeh Chamlanian ,Negar Kiani and Farzaneh Moradian.
Working alongside the head coach are other members of the technical team including, Ms. Lobat Khalili (Team Manager), Ms.Fariba Sadeghi (Coach), Ms. Sara Haj Anzhayi (Trainer), Mr. Mehrdad Mehranpoor Analyzor, Mr. Javad Mehraghan and Mr. Masoud Shirtari (Technical Advisors).
Along with Iran, 16 teams will participate in the 17th Asian Sr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, seeded in four groups on the basis of a serpentine system. The Iran women’s team goes into the competition ranked eight and will compete with teams from India, Philippines and China.
The Asian Championship also serves as a qualification tournament for the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup, the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and the AVC Cup. The winner will represent Asia at the World Grand Champions Cup in Japan from November 12 to 17, 2013.
The top two teams will compete in the 2014 edition of the World Grand Prix, with the exception of China and Japan, who have qualified automatically for the event. The top eight teams from the Asian Championship will be eligible to compete in the fourth AVC Cup next year.
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