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Japan, Korea, Russia and Italy win Olympic volleyball berths

TOKYO: Japan trounced Taiwan to secure top place in the women’s volleyball final qualifying tournament on Saturday with South Korea, Russia and Italy completing the line-up for the Athens Olympics.

The Japanese women spikers rallied to a 25-27, 25-11, 25-19, 25-22 victory for a 6-0 win-loss record, followed by South Korea with 5-1, and Russia and Italy with 4-2 ahead of Thailand with a 3-3. Even if Italy lose to Thailand and Russia lose to Japan on the final day Sunday to finish with 4-3 records, they are unreachable for Thailand because of a better set ratio.

World champions Italy saved some face Saturday by coming back from two sets down to beat Sydney Olympic champions Russia 18-25, 22-25, 25-15, 25-17, 16-14, while Asian silver medallists South Korea eased aside Nigeria 25-17, 25-14, 25-13. Thailand had defeated Puerto Rico 25-21, 25-17, 25-23 for a 3-3 record to keep their Olympic hopes alive, only to be pushed away after the game between Russia and Italy.

“It was really a good match. We really wanted to win this match, so we concentrated very well on each point. It feels great to win the ticket for Athens,” Italian captain Manuela Leggeri said. “After losing the first two sets, we started to serve better and block better, which enabled us to play our usual game. That’s why we won today.”

Italian coach Marco Bonitta said: “I’m satisfied that we can go to Athens now. We had to play this tournament in a very difficult time and my players have been mentally very tired after a long season, so I’m really happy about it.”

Although Russia will join Japan and Italy in the Olympics, coach Nikolai Karpol appeared displeased with the defeat. “We still have a chance to finish better than Italy if we can beat Japan tomorrow, but it’s not the most important thing. What’s worth is both Italy and Russia reached the Olympics,” said Karpol.

For Korean captain Ku Min-Jung, Athens will be her final appearance in an international scene. “When I was named for the national team, I was worrying about whether I should accept it or not,” said Ku, who skipped the World Cup in November because of her studies. “But I decided to accept, because I thought it would be the last stage of my volleyball career and I wanted to finish it in the Olympics. Now, we have qualified for the Olympics. It made me more motivated to finish very well in Athens.”

But coach Kim Cheol-Yong said he had found weaknesses in his team’s performance here. “I found some vulnerable points through this tournament, but we have enough time to improve them before the Olympics. Especially we have to improve our defence, otherwise, we can not keep the ball in play,” Kim said. “We must strengthen drastically by training hard. Hopefully, we can finish very well in the Olympics.”

China, Brazil and the United States have become the first qualifiers after taking the top three places in the World Cup, with Germany, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Kenya winning continental qualification to join them and hosts Greece. —AFP

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