|
Russia down China at world volleyball championships
2006-11-04
Russia has avenged their gold medal loss to China at the Athens Olympics with a four-set victory against the oponent in the women's world volleyball championships. The Russian women, who lost to China in Athens in a marathon battle, scored a 20-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-12 win to remain unbeaten with four straight wins in the Pool B round robin in Sapporo on Saturday. After the fourth day of competition, Japan, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro, and Italy secured places in the second stage to join Taiwan, Poland, Russia, China, Brazil and the United States. Top four teams from each group will reach the second stage, with remaining places to be decided by a better points ratio. "I'm glad we won this match today, because we lost to them in the past couple of years," said Russian coach Giovanni Caprara. "But you can't talk about revenge, because that was an Olympic final and this was just a group match." "We started off very badly and conceded two service aces and had three defensive mistakes before the first technical time-out. I think we were a bit nervous because we hadn't beaten China for a long time and this is normal. Russian captain Natalia Safronova credited her coach's support for their win. "We are happy with this victory. I think we should thank our coach because he supported us and helped us turn things around. We were good in both defence and attack." It was China's first defeat after winning three matches. China's coach Cheng Zhonghe said the team had prepared well for the match despite the loss. "In the second set, we thought we would have more chances to attack but we hurried ourselves a bit and made some mistakes. They kept the momentum for the rest of the match. They served very well to keep us under a lot of pressure." Taiwan, who shocked Asian rivals Japan and South Korea, continued their giant-killing run by beating European champions Poland 25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 for a fourth straight win in Group A. "I'm very surprised that we won this game today. Poland is one of the strongest teams in the world with wonderful technique. My players played very well today and this was a precious experience for us," said Taiwan's coach Lin Kuang-hung. Poland's coach Ireneusz Klos blamed the loss in part on a string of errors. "It was our worst game of the championships. My players kept repeating mistakes and did not learn their lessons from previous matches." Hosts Japan squeezed through to a 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22 win over archrivals South Korea, while Costa Rica posted their first triumph, beating Kenya 19-25, 23-25, 25-16, 32-30, 15-9 in Group A in Tokyo. Germany defeated Azerbaijan 27-25, 25-18, 25-20, and Dominican Republic whipped Mexico 25-20, 25-19, 25-12 in Group B. Top favourite Brazil outgunned the United States 25-23, 25-21, 25-13, and Kazakhstan outplayed former African champions Cameroon 25-20, 25-13, 25-12 in Group C in Kobe. Serbia and Montenegro breezed past Egypt 25-9, 25-13, 25-15, defending champions Italy brushed aside former world champions Cuba 25-27, 25-19, 25-21, 25-19, and Turkey downed Peru 25-27, 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 15-9 in Group D.
| 
