Junior spikers finish second

India's junior spikers, preparing for the World Junior volleyball championship, to be held at Tehran in August, emerged runners-up in the fourth annual tournament in Tunisia.

According to the Volleyball Federation of India, the team, on an exposure tour, lost to Tunisia 'A' 24-26, 23-25, 25-21, 23-25 in the final.

Tunisia 'A' had lost to the Indians 18-25, 19-25, 24-26 earlier in the tournament.

Vikram, Natarajan, Kishore, Rahul, Sivabala, Ravikanth, Balwant, Vinod and Mithilesh were the main performers for India in the tour.

Earlier, the Indians defeated Algeria, bronze medallists in the African championship, in the semi-finals, 25-19, 22-25, 24-26, 25-19, 15-8.

Before that, they triumphed over Algeria in the league phase also, winning 25-23, 25-23, 25-10.

The spikers are now training in Egypt.

UNI