The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Brazil on Sunday remained on its throne as the world's top volleyball powerhouse. The Brazilians, which have more-or-less dominated the sport since 2001, won their second straight World Cup by easily overcoming host Japan 3-1 before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000, a match punctuated by the Brazilians' samba celebrations and high-flying game. Tokyo has apparently turned into a "home venue" for the Brazilians as they also won the previous world cup (2003) again in the Japanese metropolis, the same city where they were crowned World Champions in 2006 and where they won the Grand Champions Cup (2005). The reigning Olympic and World Champions Brazil are the second team to win back-to-back World Cups after the former Soviet Union, which won the trophy in 1977 and 1981, along with 1965 and 1991. Russia and Bulgaria picked up the two other berths for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Russia recovered from its previous losses to Bulgaria and Brazil by beating the USA team 3-2 in the top match of the 11th day. Wild card entry Bulgaria easily defeated South American runner up Argentina 3-0. Meanwhile, Spain notched its seventh victory by defeating, in 3-1 sets, Tunisia (1-10), while the World Cup closed with two surprises: Wild card entry Korea (2-9) beat NORCECA runner up Puerto Rico (5-6) in 3-2 sets, and African Champion Egypt (3-8) overcame Asian Champion Australia (4-7) in four sets.
Bulgaria booked a place in the 2008 Olympic Games by sweeping Argentina 3-0 in the first match of the day at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The tournament wild cards, ranked seventh in the world, beat the South American vice champions 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 to finish the 12-team round-robin with a 9-2 record, good enough to secure a podium finish and a place in Beijing. Argentina, ranked ninth in the world, ended with a losing 5-6 record. Head Coach Martin Stoev said: "For sure this was not our best game, but the most important thing was to gain the victory. The main goal was to gain the ticket for the Olympics. This was the key point, and we came up in this short period". Meanwhile Bulgarian Captain Plamen Konstantinov stated: "I am very happy about this victory and about this tournament because finally we reached the Olympics. This was the most important tournament for us of this year and maybe of the last four years because we were preparing all those years to reach the Olympics. So this is a big day for Bulgarian volleyball. I hope we will make a great Olympic Games."
Russia joined Brazil and Bulgaria in the Beijing Olympics by beating USA 3-2 in a World Cup decider at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The Russians won 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-8 to improve to 9-2 and leave USA stranded on 8-3 and out of the top three. It was a wonderful match for the fans, full of crashing blocks and occasionally heating over due to the fierce rivalry between the teams and the massive prize at stake. Russian player Semen Poltavskiy said: "I do not have anything in particular to say about the game, other than that it was very important to win because it meant we could go to the Olympics. We achieved that and that is the only thing that matters. We are always amazed at the excellent organization in Japan."
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