After winning the world’s ladies badminton title last month, Thailand notched up another sporting victory Saturday by winning the Asian women’s volleyball championship, defeating Japan in three straight sets in front of a raucous home crowd in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The 25-22, 25-18, 25-17 win was also proof that, at least sometimes, age is no barrier to success. “We were blamed for being too old when we lost to Kazakhstan at the beginning of the tournament,” Thailand’s team captain Wilavan Apinyapong, 29 years old, said after the match. “But winning the tournament proves that age doesn’t matter. It might have been a surprise when we first won the championship in 2009, but we worked really hard this time.”