Voeurn Veasna expresses his thanks for the chance to represent the Kingdom during a sponsorship signing ceremony for the upcoming V League Challenge on August 17. Supplied
Cambodian superstar volleyball player, Voeurn Veasna, has confidently stated that his return from playing in Taiwan’s professional top-tier Enterprise Volleyball League will once again return greatness to the Cambodian national volleyball team.
The team is set to take part in the inaugural men’s Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei 2024 SEA V League Challenge, which the Kingdom will host from August 30 to September 1.
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The 1.91m outside hitter, who helped the Win Streak team win the 2023-2024 Taiwan Enterprise Volleyball League title, said, “Our national volleyball team has been out of the competition for a long time, so I'm very excited, and I hope that my return will bring new success for our Cambodia team.”
He expressed his positive feelings about the Kingdom’s chances as the Volleyball Federation of Cambodia (VFC) signed a memorandum with a private company on August 17 to support three competitions, including the V League Challenge, as well as the domestic Sar Kheng Cup and the Wurkz Special Volleyball Challenge 4x4.
During the signing ceremony, Veasna expressed his hopes that he and the other members of the national team would secure victory in the V league, thus earning automatic qualification for next year’s SEA V League 2025.
“Speaking for myself, as well as the rest of the team, we have very high hopes for the upcoming event. We hope to secure a spot in next year's Sea V League, and since this competition precedes the 2025 SEA Games, we will be able to gain valuable experience from competing against some of the strong teams that we will encounter at the (SEA) games in Thailand,” he said.
Aing Serey Piseth, VFC secretary-general, explained that the SEA V League Challenge will feature national teams from four countries. Aside from hosts Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Laos will take part. Myanmar's national team has been forced to withdraw from the competition due to internal issues.
He added that the four teams will compete in a round-robin format, with the top-ranked team qualifying for the 2025 Sea V League.
Veasna noted that he is familiar with many of the players from the three opposing national sides, especially the Malaysian team, most of whom he played against while representing Win Streak.
“From what I can see, most of the players from Singapore and Malaysia are veterans from previous years, and I met the Malaysian team in a recent match in Taiwan. We do have some concerns about these three teams, but the most important thing is that we need to perform well when we face them,” he said.
Despite only recently returning to the national side, Veasna was confident that he will be able to showcase his proven abilities alongside his countrymen.
“I have great confidence in the national team at every event, but we must be wary of underestimating our opponents. While we cannot be 100 per cent certain of a victory, we have high hopes of winning this competition and securing a spot in the SEA champs for next year,” he added.
