The early arrival of the DPRK club, which is judgedas one of the strong contenders for the title, shows their determinationto achieve a good result at the tournament.
After aweek-long period of training at the national sports training centre inHCM City, the DPRK players will travel to the central province of QuangTri where the championship will kick off on March 21 and last untilMarch 29.
Five foreign teams will compete at the event, according to the General Department of Sports and Physical Training.
They include the Malaysian national team, the DPRK’s sports club 4.25,the Fujian club from China, Kazakhstan’s Astana club and Japan’s TenriUniversity’s team.
They willcompete against four leading local clubs – VTV-Binh Dien Long An, Thongtin-LienVietPost Bank, VietinBank and Tien Nong Thanh Hoa - for prizestotally valued at 43,200 USD.
Thechampions will pocket 15,000 USD, the runners-up 10,000 USD and thethird-ranked team 6,000 USD. Several individual awards, worth 500 USDeach, will be also given during the tournament.
The annual volleyball competition made its debut in 2004 butVietnamese teams were victorious only in four out of 11 occasions.-VNA