Wilavan Apinyapong

Wilavan Apinyapong
วิลาวัณย์ อภิญญาพงศ์
Personal information
Full name Wilavan Apinyapong
Nickname Gift
Born June 6, 1984
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 65 kg (143 lb)
Volleyball information
Position Outside hitter
Current club Thailand Nakhon Ratchasima
Number 10
Career
Years Teams
2006 - 2007
2007 - 2008
2007 - 2008
2008 - 2009
2009 - 2010
2010 - 2011
2010 - 2011
2011 - 2012
2011 - 2012
2012 - 2014
2014 - 2015		 Tan Hao
Sang Som
IBSA Club Voleibol
Konya Eregli
Ereğli Belediye
Federbrau
Guangzhou Evergrande
Chang
Fujian Xi Meng Bao
Igtisadchi Baku
Nakhon Ratchasima
National team
2001 - Thailand Thailand

Wilavan Apinyapong (Thai: วิลาวัณย์ อภิญญาพงศ์; RTGS: Wilawan Aphinyaphong, born June 6, 1984) is a Thai professional volleyball player who plays for Azerbaijan Club Igtisadchi Baku in the Azerbaijan Super League and the Thai National Team as an Outside Hitter.[1] She has been the captain for the Thailand women's national volleyball team since 2008. Apinyapong led the Thai team to win the first gold medal at 2009 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship beaten China 3-1 for the first time in history and repeated again in 2013 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship where she also received the MVP award of the event.

Career

Apinyapong signed with the Spanish professional club IBSA Club Voleibol for the 2007-2008 season of the Spanish Superliga, playing with her countrymate Nootsara Tomkom.[2][3] The 2 following seasons she and some of her Thai teammates such as Malika Kanthong, Amporn Hyapha signed with the Turkish club Ereğli Belediye and had a successful club career there.

In 2010 she signed with the Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande under the coach Jenny Lang Ping. Along with the Olympics MVP Feng Kun, Yang Hao, Logan Tom, Jovana Brakočević but most of the time sat on the bench throughout the season because of the limitation of foreigner players, only 2 allowed on the court.

Next Season she moved to another Chinese club team Fujian Xi Meng Bao played along with Pleumjit Thinkaow and the famous Chinese Olympics bronze medalist Xu Yunli.

In 2012 was the golden year for Thai team even though the team failed to qualify to the 2012 Summer Olympics because of the Serbia-Japan fixed match but she still hopeful to have an opportunity to be in the 2016 .Thai team went on to finish 4th place at the 2012 World Grand Prix made it the best result for Thailand since 2002 as the Thai team participated for the first time . After won the gold medal against Asia's power house China at 2012 Asian Women's Cup Volleyball Championship she and her 6 other teammates signed for Igtisadchi Baku and helped the team to win the silver medal at the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Women's Volleyball Super League and qualified for the 2013/2014 CEV Women's Champions League for the very first time since the club was found.

In 2013 She received the MVP award at the 2013 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship . She extended the contract with Igtisadchi Baku for one more year and being named the captain. Although she is the captain on the court but she often been substituted later because of her poor performance.

In late 2013, after winning the gold medal at 2013 Southeast Asian Games, Apinyapong said that she will not go to compete at the 2014 FIVB Women's World Championship due to join 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, considering that she might have a chance to win at least one medal because the other strong teams such as China and Japan will only send team B to the games and if she can get a medal it means that more money as well as easier tournament.

Clubs

Awards

Individual

Clubs

National team

Senior Team

References

  1. ↑ "Player's biography". Fédération Internationale de Volleyball. 28 August 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "El anfitrión Ibsa sueña con meterse en las semifinales". Canarias7 (in Spanish) (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain). EFE. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2013-01-15.
  3. ↑ "SFV: Previa de la décimotercera jornada de la Fase Regular" (in Spanish). RFEVB. 2008-01-24. Retrieved 2013-01-15.


Awards
Preceded by
China Wang Yimei		 Most Valuable Player of
Asian Championship
2013 		Succeeded by

External links

Media related to Wilavan Apinyapong at Wikimedia Commons