Four women teams to vie for last two Asian tickets to Japan
-Chia Yi, Chinese Taipei, August 25, 2009 — The last two Asian tickets to the finals of the 2010 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Championship in Japan will be decided from August 28-30 in Taipei as Kazakhstan, Korea, New Zealand and host Chinese Taipei compete in Pool E of the third round.
The four teams will play a round-robin format at Chia Yi City Gymnasium, where the top two teams will advance to Japan, following China and Thailand, which secured their berths in July in Chengdu, China after finishing 1-2 in Pool D.
Kazakhstan and New Zealand earned their third-round berths after placing first and third in Pool B during the second round, while Chinese Taipei was second in Pool C. Korea entered the third round directly.
Among the four teams, Korea and Kazakhstan are considered the teams most likely to finish in the top two, with Chinese Taipei a strong contender for third and New Zealand the outsider.
Korea has the highest world ranking among the four teams, sitting in tenth. They finished second in the Asian Women’s Cup Championship last October behind China. In the last Asian Volleyball Championship, Korea crushed Chinese Taipei in straight sets and edged Kazakhstan 3-2.
Kazakhstan is ranked 14th in the world, Chinese Taipei 21st and New Zealand 84th.
Nelly Chsherbakova took over as head coach of the Kazakhstan Women's National Team in 2008, but the team remains largely unchanged. The team is strong in attacking due to its height advantage.
“Our Women's team has no other goal than to make it to the 2010 World Championships in Japan,” said Yermek Syrlybayev, Secretary General of the Volleyball Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
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Chinese Taipei is considered a strong threat in Pool E. The team has taken part in two World Championships. They finished 11th in 1990 and 12th in 2006. The Taiwanese girls won gold at the 2005 World Universiade in Turkey, and claimed bronze at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
Chinese Taipei finished sixth in both the 2007 Asian Championship and the 2008 Asian Women's Cup.
New Zealand has an outside shot at advancing, and will likely be happy with gaining valuable international experience while probably not seriously troubling the other three teams.
Match Schedule:
August 28
15:00 New Zealand vs. Korea
18:30 Chinese Taipei vs. Kazakhstan
August 29
15:00 Kazakhstan vs. Korea
17:00 Chinese Taipei vs. New Zealand
August 30
15:00 Kazakhstan vs. New Zealand
17:00 Chinese Taipei vs. Korea
