Japan's setter Yoshie Takeshita sets the ball for Sachiko Sugiyama to attack in the match between Japan and Dominican Republic | Tokyo, Japan, May 21, 2008 - The fourth day of competition at the Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament ended Wednesday with Serbia and Japan moving nearer towards their final goal of booking a ticket to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Poland, meanwhile, followed closely behind the two hot favourites.
The leading teams in the standings remained unchanged. Serbia and Japan are the only two teams unbeaten with eight points, Poland are third with seven points, followed by Korea with six points, Thailand, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico with five, and Kazakhstan four.
The Serbs, 2006 World Championship bronze medal winner, followed their sweep of Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic and Korea with another convincing display, beating Thailand 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-15) in the first match. The Serbs looked impressive from the start, putting a lot of pressure on their opponents’ defence.
The Thais, with an average height of 1.76 meters compared with that of 1.85 for the Serbs, found it very difficult to withstand mighty spiking by the 1.94-metre Jelene Nikolic and 1.96 Jovana Brakocevic.
With their fourth win, Serbia now has a perfect win-loss record while Thailand dropped to 1-3.
“We were well prepared and the match was much easier than we expected. We only met with some difficulties in the second set,” said Zoran Terzin, Serbia Head Coach. “Now we are in a good situation. If we beat Puerto Rico tomorrow, we are almost certain to go to Beijing.”
Thailand Head Coach Nataphon Srisamutak said: “We had problems in receiving. The goal for us is to do our best. We will play against other Asian teams and hope to beat them.”
Thailand will meet Korea on May 24 and Kazakhstan on May 25 in the tournament that will also determine the Asian Olympic ticket to Beijing.
Asian champion and eighth-ranked Japan beat Dominican Republic for their fourth-straight victory in the last match of the day Wednesday. After a bright start in the first set, Japan faded in the second but they regrouped in time to come home in style 25-21, 18-25, 25-16, 25-21. The four-set victory in front of a full house improved their win-loss record to 4-0. The Dominicans caused many problems in the match, but ultimately could not stop their opponents and dropped to 1-3.
“We played how we have practised and played hard, but we won finally. We are establishing our own team style and every time we play against a different type of team we need to remind ourselves of our own style,” said Japanese Head Coach Shoichi Yanagimoto.
“Today’s match was undoubtedly our worst so far, especially our reception,” said Dominican Head Coach Beato Miguel Cruz. “We could not put our strategy into practice. The cause of our defeat is the mistakes in the setter’s distribution.”
The match between Poland and Korea was a one-sided game, almost the same as the first match between Serbia and Thailand. Poland, considered one of the favourites to qualify for Beijing, had too much height and power for the Asian representatives. The Korean showing was unexpected compared with their usual resilience and never-give-up fighting spirit. Blocked attacks, sloppy serves and broken defence from the Koreans made it all too easy for the Polish team to finish the match 25-16, 25-19, 25-16 in just 70 minutes.
Poland Head Coach Marco Bonitta was very satisfied with the match: “We knew that against Korea we needed to play at our best level, and we have done that. We have got used to the Asian style of Volleyball.”
Polish libero Mariola Zenik said he was surprised by his opponents: “In the past the matches with Korea were very difficult, but today we won easier than we expected.”
Korean Head Coach Lee Jung-Chul said: “The remaining three matches are very important and we have to do our best in each match so as to get the ticket to the Olympic Games.”
Puerto Rico and Kazakhstan, looking for their first win after three straight defeats, both started the second match with determination. The NORCECA team, with the outstanding Aurea Cruz who scored a game-high 26 points including five aces, clinched the first and second sets. Kazakhstan rebounded twice to force the game into the tiebreaker with a block by Natalya Zhukova in the fourth set winning the set point. But Puerto Rico eventually wore down Kazakhstan 3-2 (25-19, 15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13) and brought home their first win at the tournament.
“We had to win the match, “said Juan Carlos Nunez, Head Coach of Puerto Rico. “Our service and defense are good but blocks did not work. Now we have to work on the setting and attack.”
Kazakhstan Head Coach Viktor Zhuravlev was very disappointed with the result: “We wanted to win too much today and consequently made many stupid mistakes. But I think we still have a chance to go to the Olympics, so we cannot lose the next three games.”
Italy, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela have already booked their tickets to Beijing. China as host country automatically qualifies.
The tournament will have a rest day on Thursday, May 22, and resumes on Friday.
Taking part in the Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament are host Japan, Thailand, Korea, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Poland, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The tournament doubles as the Asian Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament and so the best three teams plus the best Asian team (even if any of the best three teams are Asians) will book their tickets to Beijing.
Day Four results:
Thailand vs. Serbia 0-3 (16-25, 23-25, 15-25)
Puerto Rico vs. Kazakhstan 3-2 (25-19, 15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13)
Korea vs. Poland 0-3 (16-25, 19-25, 16-25)
Dominican Republic vs. Japan 1-3 (21-25, 25-18, 16-25, 21-25)
Standings (two points for victory, one for loss):
Serbia and Japan: 8 points
Poland: 7 points
Korea: 6 points
Thailand, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico: 5 points
Kazakhstan: 4 points Schedule for May 23:
Kazakhstan vs. Dominican Republic
Serbia vs. Puerto Rico
Poland vs. Thailand
Japan vs. Korea |
