Spikers fail to qualify

India failed to qualify for the World Volleyball Championship when they went down after giving a tough fight to Asian Games champions South Korea.

Required to score a 3-0 win against Korea to qualify, the hosts lost their final league match in the second leg of the qualifying event 2-3.

The Indians fought gallantly before going down 25-23, 18-25, 25-23, 19-25, 12-15 in three hours and 13 minutes.

Asian Games champions, Korea and Australia, ranked 22nd in the world, earned the right to compete in next year8217;s World Championship in Japan.

Besides hosts Japan, China, Iran and Kazakstan were the other Asian countries to book their berth. Both teams relied more on attack with Korea having 313 attempts to India8217;s 311. The hosts erred on more occasions 28 compared to Korea 22.