COLOMBO: India beat Australia 25-12, 25-23, 25-14 to finish 7th at the 10th Asian Youth Volleyball Championship being played at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
After four straight losses that saw them relegated to 7th/8th place play-off, India finished with a morale boosting win over Australia.
Sanjith Sajeev and Rebello Benet nailed the gaps as Indian ran away with the first set 25-12. Australia put up an improved display in the second set, leading for a brief while before India stormed back to take the set 25-23.
With Australia deflated after the loss of second set, India motored away to complete a straight sets win and finish 7th in the final rankings.
India beat Bahrain and Qatar to finish second in Pool B behind Iran. They went on to lose to Japan, South Korea in classification round and were eliminated by Chinese Taipri in the quarter-final. Sri Lanka came from two sets down to beat India in the 5th-8th place play-off semi-final.
Indian youngsters matched the result from 2012 Asian Under-18 Championship where India also finished 7th.
Japan, Iran, China and Chinese Taipei qualified for the 2015 World Under-19 Championship by taking the top 4 places at this event in Colombo.