After beating Australia on the opening day yesterday, the Iranians battled back to see off the Canadians 27-29, 19-25, 25-20, 25-21,16-14 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Milad Ebadipour led Iran's offensive efforts with 26 points in what could be a key result in the bid to reach the Games.

The eight-team tournament is doubling as an Asian qualifier so the top-ranked team from the continent will automatically progress to Rio 2016, regardless of where they finish in the round-robin.

The three best other sides will also advance to Brazil after each country has played each other once.

Poland are second in the table after also making it two wins from two after being two sets down.

The 1976 Olympic champions and the current world champions suffered heartbreak at the FIVB World Cup last year when they missed out on one of two Rio 2016 qualification places, despite winning 10 matches and losing only one.

They moved closer to erasing that memory as they edged past European champions France with a fine comeback, 22-25, 13-25, 31-29, 25-17, 15-12.

Dawid Konarski's 19-point haul was key for Poland as they triumphed in the final set.

France now sit third with China fourth after they beat hosts Japan today, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23.

Australia also bagged a first win, seeing off Venezuela 19-25, 25-20, 25-10, 25-19.