Placed fifth in Group A after the completion of the preliminary round on June 5, Sangsom suffered a shock 0-3 (17-25 13-25 17-25) defeat at the hands of winless Asia World of Burma in the 9th-12th classification round. The loss gave the Thai side a last-notch effort to take on AGMK in the 11th-place play-off on Friday. Sangsom had already beaten the Uzbek rivals 3-1 in the preliminaries earlier.

The play-off was a seesaw battle. Sangsom won the hard-fought first set 27-25, but AGMK made amends to take the second set 25-23. The Thais snatched the third set 25-19, but AGMK improved their teamwork and tactics in the following sets to win 25-13 and 15-5 and the 11th position. Thailand's Sangsom finished a disappointing 12th.

In the final clash, Iran's Paykan retained their title after thrashing Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal 3-0, while the third place went to Al Arabi from Qatar, which came from behind to beat Bahrain's Al Najima 3-1.

Meanwhile, the national women's side, spearheaded by hard-hitting Patcharee Sangmuang, Amporn Hyapha and Pluemjitr Thinkaow will leave on Thursday for the Asian Women's Club Championship from June 16-23 in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, where eight teams will compete in the single round-robin competition.

The Thai girls, who will play under the Sangsom banner, will open their campaign against Saobaeksu from the People's Democratic Public of Korea on Saturday. They next take on Vietnam's National Sports Training Centre No 1, followed by Dalian Huangu from China, Hisamitsu from Japan, Kazakhstan's Rahat, Uzbekistan's Skip and Garuda from Indonesia on June 23. The three top teams will pocket US$3,000, US$2,000 and US$1,000 respectively.

Last year in Ninh Binh, Vietnam, Sangsom finished fifth. The Thai girls claimed only two wins over Uzbekistan and Vietnam in the seven-team, single round-robin tournament.