Official Bulletin no. 5 July 2006

Edition in English

www.fivb.org

fÉDÉRatiOn inteRnatiOnale De VOlleYBall

The alphabetical list of venues across the world ranges from Belo Horizonte in Bra-zil to Yekaterinburg in Russia. The sixteen teams involved will battle it out over 6 weekends, with the first Intercontinental Round starting on 14 July 2006. The top-ranked team in each pool, plus the host country and one wild card chosen by the FIVB, will then head to the finals in Mos-cow from 23 to 27 August.

In addition to strong favourites Brazil (winner of the past three editions), Serbia and Montenegro and Cuba, who took the top three places in last year’s final in Bel-

grade, the World League 2006 welcomes Egypt as the first-ever participant from Africa and celebrates the return of the two “superpower” teams from the USA and Russia.

Poland completes the group of last year’s Final Four, whilst Italy, which holds the record for the most World League vic-tories (8), will be hoping to make up for last year’s failure to qualify for the Final

in this issueVolleyball

•WorldChampionshipsNews:Serbia&Montenegro,KazakhstanandPuertoRico

•The“other”WorldChampionships

Beach Volleyball

•SWATCHFIVBWorldTourJuneupdate

Confederations

•CEVBestplayers2005awarded

•AVCAsianMen’sandWomen’sClubChampionship

•2006FIVBGlobalCalendarJuly&August

From mid-July, the FIVB World League will start, with a total of 96 matches played on all continents (Oceania being considered as part of Asia within the FIVB’s organisational structure). The competition will see 16 teams competing for record prize money of USD 20 million.

all set for the 2006 World league!Match point for Brazil against Serbia and Montenegro at last year’s World League final

Round for the first time ever in the side’s history, having been the only team other than Brazil to participate in all 16 editions of the competition. Europe’s contingent is completed by Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Finland, which will be making only its second appearance in the World League.

As the only other team from South Amer-ica, Argentina will be looking to improve on last year’s performance, when the

2006 Intercontinental Round Schedule - Pools and weeks - Double matches - Home/Away

Pools and teamsWeek 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 614-16 July 21-23 July 28-30 July 4-6 August 11-13 August 18-20 August

Pool ASerbia & Montenegro ScG-POl ScG-JPn ScG-uSaUSA uSa-POl uSa-JPn uSa-ScGPoland POl-ScG POl-uSa POl-JPnJapan JPn-ScG JPn-uSa JPn-POlPool BBrazil BRa-aRG BRa-fin BRa-PORArgentina aRG-BRa aRG-POR aRG-finPortugal POR-fin POR-BRa POR-aRGFinland fin-POR fin-aRG fin-BRaPool CItaly ita-fRa ita-RuS ita-cHnRussia RuS-fRa RuS-cHn RuS-itaChina cHn-ita cHn-RuS cHn-fRaFrance fRa-ita fRa-RuS fRa-cHnPool DCuba cuB-eGY cuB-Bul cuB-KORKorea KOR-cuB KOR-Bul KOR-eGYBulgaria Bul-eGY Bul-KOR Bul-cuBEgypt eGY-KOR eGY-cuB eGY-Bul

team finished bottom of their pool. Repre-senting Asia are Japan, China and Korea, which returns to the competition after a seven-year absence.

For each week of the competition, the FIVB is offering a “Match of the Week” to international broadcasters free of rights and transmission fees. Please see the FIVB website for more details.

2 fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

Fromyeartoyear,theSeniorWomen’sNationalTeamofSerbiaandMontene-groattractsevermoreattentionfromvolleyball fans. Having qualified forthe World Championship final roundinJapanforthefirsttimein28years,beating Germany and reigning Euro-peanChampionPolandalongtheway,theteamhasgivenahintoftheirvastpotentialandtalent.

Before heading for Japan, Zoran Terzic’s players will also be looking to qualify for one of the most prestigious events in women’s competition – the 2007 World Grand Prix.

“As we did in the past few years, we are going one step at the time. European Qualifications to the 2007 World Grand Prix present a great challenge for us, because until now we didn’t have the

Volleyball

Puerto Rico’s women’s team will beunderthecontrolofcaptainAuryCruzat the 2006 FIVB World Champion-ships in Japan. Aury, a former staroutside hitter with the University ofFloridaGators,tookpartinaQuestion and Answere-mailsession:

• What  is  Puerto  Rico’s  target  in  this year’s World Championships? How high 

Captain Aury has Puerto Rico in Cruz control

VOLLEYBALL wOmEn

opportunity to play in this prestigious competition. Entering as one of the 12 teams would be a great success, like it is important for men to play in the World League,” explained Zoran Terzic, Head Coach of Serbia & Montenegro.

The ‘Blue girls’ played only once at the World Championship, in 1978, where they finished 16th. “Participation at the World Championship means a lot. Of course, we’ll give our best to be ranked as high as possible. Our wish is to enter the second round, to place ourselves among the 16 best teams in the world. Entering the best 12 or 8 teams would be fantastic – realistically,” said Terzic.

An interesting historical parallel is that the Serbia and Montenegro men’s team that took the silver medal in the 1998 World Championships had also returned

after the same 28-year absence since their previous participation in 1970.

“In the women’s competition there is a greater number of teams which play the finals and win competitions: Poland is the European Champion, Italy World Champi-on, Brazil is the World Grand Prix Winner, China is the Olympic Champion. It is very hard to reach the level of these teams. I hope we’ll follow our men, meaning that when we win the first medal we will con-tinue our journey to the world’s top. A first success would be a great initiative for our girls to advance, for our Federa-tion, but also for our fans,” the Head Coach said.

do you think you can finish in the final rankings?A.C.: Our team’s target is to play really consistently in all facets of the game. We have demonstrated that we can compete with the top teams in the world. So we have set a goal to give all our best to enter the second round and maintain our rank-ing.

• What  are  the  strong  points  of  the Puerto Rico team?A.C.: We are a young team that has been improving our game in every tournament that comes along. But our serving is one

of the strong points in the team. We have players with offensive serves.

• You finished fourth in the Norceca Cham-pionship  in  Trini-dad  last  September. What  aspects  of  the game do you need to improve in particular before the Japan?

A.C.: Finishing fourth at the Norceca is good for us, but not enough because we know we could be at the top in our region. We are working on new things with this team we are taking to the Worlds that will make it a better team than we’ve had before.

• Have  you  some  exciting,  talented young players we must watch out  for in Japan?A.C.: We are a young team, we have some exciting players that should be watched in the tournament. Karina Ocasio, even though she played on the last World Championship team, has improved her game, bringing her strong offense to the team. Also we have two new setters who will have their opportunity to show their game.

• You will play USA again, in Pool C, as well as Brazil, Netherlands, Cameroon and  Kazakhstan.  How  highly  do  you rate the USA, and why?A.C.: USA is a team that have shown their consistent game all the time. That’s what makes them a strong team to beat, even

Serbia & Montenegro another step closer to the top

VOLLEYBALL wOmEn

Senior Women’s National Team of Serbia and Montenegro

Head coach Juan Carlos Nunez

Head coach Zoran Terzic

3fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

Eva Cruz (Puerto Rico) spikes

2006 world Championships

Vladimir Kondra, head coach of theKazakhstanMen’sNationalteam,hassethisaimfortheFIVBWorldCham-pionshipsasprogressingtothesecondround.

The head coach said that “... every match in our group is worthy of special attention.” Kazakhstan is in Pool D and will play in Sendai against Rus-sia, Serbia & Montene-gro, Canada, Tunisia and Korea. “However, our

players will do their best to qualify for the second round. It is our main and realistic target for the 2006 World Championship Final,” said Vladimir Kondra who was named the head coach of Kazakhstan Men’s national team six months ago.

“Much depends on the mental approach and actions of two key players opposite Marat Imangaliyev and wing spiker Svya-toslav Miklashevich.”

Kazakhstan Volleyball Association has already drawn up a detailed World Cham-pionship preparation program for Kaza-khstan men’s national team, which divided its preparations into two parts: training camp and warm-up matches.

Kazakhstan men’s national team had its first training camp from April 24 to May

17 and the second training camp will take place from June 23 to July 6 in Turkey. And the team will still have five more training camps before the World Championships.Furthermore, the Kazakhstan team will

also compete with teams from Finland in July, have friendly matches with Russian teams in September and Chinese teams in October.

Kazakhstan has been making impressive progress in recent years and now is one of the strongest teams in Asia. The team defeated Korea in the Asian second round

Kazakhstan men’s team coach sets aim for World Championships

VOLLEYBALL mEn

though they changed their personnel. We understand that our pool is not going to be easy but we have the personnel to take it to the top.

• How old were you when you started playing  volleyball,  and  why  did  you start?A.C.: I started playing volleyball at age 5 once my sister also started at age 12. It was a choice that my parents made to keep us busy in recreation.

• If your older sister Eva makes a mis-take on the court, do you argue and fall out? And vice-versa!A.C.: As the captain and a player of the national team, we don’t need to argue with our own players. We need to support them and to let them know we are there for them and understand that they would fix the mistake in the next play. My sister and I have talked about how to speak to each player because everyone does not react the same way. It is not easy to do because you want them to react as soon as possible but at the same time you don’t want to fall out or they will not focus on the game.

qualification tournament to clinch its berth for the World Championships final round in Japan.

Kazakhstan Volleyball Federation has also announced a list of 19 candidate players for the National team.

Most of them come from two major clubs: 10 from Rakat and five from Atyrau.

The players are Dmitriy Gorbatkov, Marat Imangaliyev, Svyatoslav Miklashevi-ch, Andrey Pimakhin, Alexey Stepanov, Sergey Trikoz, Dmitriy Chernenko, Anton Yudin, Yuriy Stulov, Vladimir Derevyanko, Ilya Zinkin, Kirill Konovalov, Andrey Kok-sharev, Yevgeniy Senatorov, Kairat Baibe-kov, Yevgeniy Andreyev, Sergey Smirnov, Anton Rubtsov, and Denis Zhukov.

Kazakhstan Men’s National Team

This month, Val-kun continues our rally with a devastating spike.

He’s mimicking his idol Eva Cruz (left) from Puerto Rico.

The rally continues next month.Website: www.2006vball.jp

4 fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

Tough competition and tough conditions in Europe for the 2006 World Tour

BEACh VOLLEYBALL mEn & wOmEn

Beach Volleyball

The SWATCH FIVB World Tour expe-riencedwind,rain,thunderandlight-ning on its stops in June, makingthe tough competition even tougher.Although Brazilian teams showed aregularpresenceonthepodium,theUSA,China,GermanyandSwitzerlandwerealwayshotontheirheels.

At the men’s season opener in Shanghai, the eventual champions Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhães had to battle against the wind and five consecutive elimination matches to secure their place in the final.

Fellow Brazilians Pedro Cunha and Fran-co Neto lost out to their second-seeded countrymen in the all-Brazilian final.

Germany’s Brink and Dieckmann, who were playing in their first SWATCH event together, prevented a Brazilian 1-2-3 by defeating Emanuel and Ricardo in the bronze medal match.

China dominated the women’s compe-tition in Shanghai, with Xue Chen and Zhang Xi beating the second-seeded pair of Wang Jie and Tian Jian (who took 3rd place at the season opener in Modena).

The 17 year-old Xue Chen became the youngest player ever to capture an inter-national Beach Volleyball event. Modena winners Juliana and Larissa were relegat-ed to third place behind the all-Chinese finalists.

Olympic champions Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor triumphed at the same Ath-

ens Beach Volleyball stadium where they won their gold medals in 2004.

Another young Chinese team, consisting of 20 year-old Ji Linjun and 23 year-old Wang Lu, swept aside Brazilians Juliana and Larissa in the semi-finals after com-ing from behind to secure their place in the final, though the Brazilians never-theless took a place on the podium after beating third-seeded Americans Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs, extend-ing their head-to-head record against the Americans to 6-1.

Olympic champions Ricardo and Emanuel of Brazil took their first SWATCH title of the season at the men’s Open event in Zagreb. Americans Philip Dalhausser and Todd Rogers took second place, after gain-ing their ticket to the final by beating their compatriots Michael Lambert and Stein Metzger.

The latter team defeated Brazil’s Roberto Lopes and Pedro Salgado to take the bronze medal in their first SWATCH event together. The two medals for the Ameri-cans marked the first time in nearly six years that the United States netted a pair of international men’s Beach Volleyball medals at the same World Tour event.

After early morning showers and mid-day lightning, it was the Swiss pair Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel that emerged victorious in Roseto degli Abruzzi, having defeated the reigning World and Olympic champions from Brazil to take their third SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal.

With the Swiss duo being the only non-Brazilian pairing in the final four, it was up to the South Americans to fight among themselves for the remaining podium posi-tions, with the reigning Olympic cham-pions Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos taking silver and third-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Harley Marques beating 2005 SWATCH FIVB World Champions Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhães to take the bronze medal.

June 7-11 - Men’s Open Roseto - Italy - Podium Finish

1 GOLDKobel – Heuscher Sui

2 SILVERRicardo – emanuel BRa

3 BRONZEHarley – Benjamin BRa

May 31 - June 4 - Women’s Open Athens - Greece - Podium Finish

1 GOLDWalsh – May-treanor uSa

2 SILVERlinjun Ji – Wang lu cHn

3 BRONZEfelisberta Silva – frança BRa

May 23-27 - Men’s Open Shanghai - China - Podium Finish

1 GOLDM. araujo – f. Magalhães BRa

2 SILVERcunha – franco BRa

3 BRONZEBrink – Dieckmann ch. GeR

May 24-28 - Women’s Open Shanghai - China - Podium Finish

1 GOLDXue chen – Zhang Xi cHn

2 SILVERWang Jie – tian Jian cHn

3 BRONZEfelisberta Silva – frança BRa

May 31 - June 4 - Men’s Open Zagreb - Croatia - Podium Finish

1 GOLDRicardo – emanuel BRa

2 SILVERRogers – Dalhausser uSa

3 BRONZElambert – Metzger uSa

p Fabio Magal-hães (left) hits against Brazilian rival Franco Neto in Shanghai final

u Shanghai wom-en’s podium

5fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

second consecutive gold medal on this year’s tour and their third podium place in three events, taking their combined earn-ings so far this year on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour close to 100,000 US dollars. The Americans beat Brazil’s Juliana and Larissa in two straight sets 21-17, 21-17 to avenge their loss at the season-opener in Modena. The Brazilians struggled to recover from a gruelling semi-final match against fourth-seeded Wang Jie and Tian Jia of China, which they won 18-21, 30-28 and 16-14. In the all-Chinese bronze medal match, Tian Jia and Wang Jie defeated Shanghai winners Xue Chen and Zhang Xi to take their third podium place in four events.

Top-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos captured their second-straight gold medal in Gstaad by defeating Bra-zilian rivals Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhães in a battle between Olympic and World champions. The Athens 2004 Olympic champions, Emanuel and Ricardo scored a 21-17 and 21-19 win in 46 min-utes over the 2005 SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medallists for the fifth time in seven meetings between the two teams. It

2006 SwATCh FIVB world Tour

2006 Men’s top ten teamson June 26 Code Points

1 Ricardo-Emanuel BRA 2 9002 F. Magalhães-M. Araujo BRA 2 3403 Brink-Dieckmann Ch. GER 1 7204 Cunha-Franco BRA 1 5805 Kais Kr.-Vesik EST 1 5406 Baracetti-Conde ARG 1 4407 Schacht-Slack AUS 1 1608 Lione-Varnier “Osso” ITA 1 1009 Kjemperud-Skarlund NOR 1 080 Kobel-Heuscher SUI 1 080

2006 Women’s top ten teams on June 26 Code Points

1 Felisberta Silva-França BRA 2 2802 Wang-Tian Jia CHN 1 9603 Walsh-May-Treanor USA 1 9404 Zhang Xi-Xue CHN 1 4605 Wacholder-Youngs USA 1 3206 Adriana Behar-Shelda BRA 1 240 Karadassiou-Arvaniti GRE 1 2408 Ribeiro-Antunes BRA 1 2209 Zhang-Zuo CHN 940 Kadijk R.-Mooren NED 940

After finishing third in Shanghai, Germa-ny’s Julius Brink and Christoph Dieck-mann took gold in only their second event on the 2006 SWATCH FIVB World Tour, thereby relegating the Olympic champi-ons Emanuel and Ricardo to second place for the second time in succession. In the bronze medal match, Cunha and Franco denied Italy its first SWATCH FIVB World Tour medal since 1991 by defeating sev-enth-seeded Ricardo Lione and Mat-teo Varnier. With the win, the Brazilians bagged their second podium finish of the season, while Lione and Varnier clinched their second fourth place in their last five SWATCH starts.

At the season’s first Grand Slam stop in the Swiss Alpine town of Gstaad, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor took their

June 14-18 - Men’s Open Espinho - Portugal - Podium Finish

1 GOLDBrink – Dieckmann ch. GeR

2 SILVERRicardo – emanuel BRa

3 BRONZEcunha – franco BRa

Juliana’s unconventional dig alludes to Brazil’s other national sport

June 21-25 - Men’s Grand Slam Gstaad - Switzerland - Podium Finish

1 GOLDRicardo – emanuel BRa

2 SILVERf. Magalhães – M. araujo BRa

3 BRONZEBrink – Dieckmann ch. GeR

June 21-25 - Women’s Grand Slam Gstaad - Switzerland - Podium Finish

1 GOLDWalsh – May-treanor uSa

2 SILVERfrança – felisberta Silva BRa

3 BRONZEWang – tian Jia cHn

was also the third gold medal meeting for the top-two teams on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour since last July with Emanuel and Ricardo winning each time. For the third time this season, Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann prevented a Brazil-ian 1-2-3 by defeating Pedro Cunha and Franco Neto in the bronze medal match.

The SWATCH FIVB World Tour contin-ues in July with double-gender stops in Stavanger (Grand Slam), Marseille, Paris (Grand Slam), Montreal and St. Peters-burg.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor take gold in Athens and Gstaad

6 fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

Confederations

Europe’s best players in 2005 were Cisolla, Swieniewicz, Herrera and Karadassiou

COnFEdErATIOnS

Alberto Cisolla from Italyand Polish Dorota Swienie-wiczhavebeenelected thebest European Volleyball

players from 2005. In Beach Volley-ball,SpanishPabloHerrerareclaimedtheaward‘KingoftheBeach’,whilstGreekVassilikiKaradassioudeservedtobethe‘QueenoftheBeach’2005.

Alberto Cisolla and Dorota Swieniewicz stood out during the Indesit European Championships 2005, both claiming the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award. Whilst 28-year-old Italian Cisolla helped his team to become European Champion for the sixth time in history, Swieniewicz (33 years old)

and Poland won the European Champion-ship title for the second consecutive time.

Spain’s Pablo Herrera seized the ‘King of the Beach 2005’ title once again after he and his former partner Javier Bosma were celebrated as best Beach Volleyball duo in 2004. In 2005, the 23-year-old won the European Championship title together with Raul Mesa Lite in Moscow (RUS). Greek Vassiliki Karadassiou expe-rienced an outstanding year 2005 at the side of Vassiliki Arvaniti. Finishing second in Valencia (ESP), the Greek duo won in Lucerne (SUI) before claiming the Euro-pean Championship title in Moscow, tak-ing over top spot in the CEV Ranking.

The European stars received their award during the European Volleyball Gala in the Austrian capital of Vienna on 23rd June 2006 on the occasion of the drawing of lots for the Indesit European Champions’ League 2006/07.

Pablo Herrera (left) with Raul Mesa Lite

Vassiliki Karadassiou (GRE)

Dorota Swieniewicz (POL)Alberto Cisolla (ITA)

AVC Board of Administration to speed up development of Volleyball in Asia

COnFEdErATIOnS

At itsannualmeeting,heldin Bali at the beginningof June, the AVC Board ofAdministration expressed

itssatisfactionwiththedevelopmentofVolleyballinAsiaanddecidedtotakestrongeractionstopromoteAsianVol-leyballfurther.

The AVC Board meeting praised the work of the Technical Committees and Councils towards continued improvements in all aspects of the sport and heard of signifi-cant progress in the development of Vol-leyball and Beach Volleyball.

In particular, more and more national federations in the AVC became active and actively participate in the FIVB and AVC events. Furthermore, after the AVC Cen-tral Zone organized their zonal champion-ship earlier this year, all five AVC zones now have their own zonal championships.A record number of teams took part in the

2006 FIVB World Championships quali-fication tournaments. A total of 33 teams from 21 national federations sent entries to the 2006 World Championships, an almost 35 % increase on the teams from 11 national federations in the previous edition.

However, only 18 out of 65 senior national men’s teams are participating in the conti-nental championships. The figures clearly indicate that there is a huge need to reduce the gap between the “active” and “inactive” federations and to increase participation of the smaller, less visible federations. The meeting agreed to focus on driving for-wards the sports of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball by urging zonal associations to organize more competitions, focusing on increasing national and international par-ticipation through programmes to intro-duce Volleyball at grass-roots level and to encourage the establishment of Beach

Volleyball training centers and organize an Asian Beach Volleyball tour.

In parallel, the AVC will continue to take full advantage of FIVB Development Cent-ers and encourage national federations to take part in various kinds of courses and seminars held in Asia. There are also plans to make the centers’ programmes more diversified.

All Contributions Welcome!Please send your comments and articles by e-mail to:

press@fivb.orgor by mail / fax to:

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball Avenue de la Gare 12 CH-1001 Lausanne - Switzerland

Tel : +41 (21) 345 35 35 Fax: +41 (21) 345 35 45

�fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

national Federations

Iran’s Paykan claims title at 2006 Asian Men’s Club Championship

COnFEdErATIOnS

Iran’s Paykan clinched thefirstplaceafterbeatingtheirlast opponents DefendingChampion Rahat of Kaza-

khstaninstraightsetsinthefinalsofthe2006AsianMen’sClubVolleyballChampionshipinHanoi(Vietnam).

Paykan of Iran with a perfect record of four wins and no defeat in the group entered the final after beating Thailand’s Army Club 3-1 (25-23, 24-26, 25-21 and 25-20) in the semifinals while Rahat downed BNI Taplus from Indonesia 3-0 (32-30, 25-11,

25-17), earning the other ticket for the finals.

In the bronze medal match, BNI Taplus and Army Club fought a five set match. The two sides won two sets each in the first four sets but the Indonesians put up a better performance to win the tiebreaker and the match in 29-27,19-25, 27-25, 12-25, 15-13.

individual player awardsBest Scorer: Nishino Daisaku (Japan)Best Attacker: Fang Ying Chao (China)

Best Blocker: Masouri Mohammad (Iran)Best Server: Mohammadkazem Mohammad (Iran)Best Digger: Zarif Ahangaran Varzand Fahad (Iran)Best Setter: He Jiong (CHN)Best Receiver: Srophum Supachai (Thailand)Most Valuable Player: Solimani Mohammad (Iran)

final team ranking1. Paykan (Iran)2. Rahat (Kazakhstan)3. BNI Taplus (Indonesia)4. Army (Thailand)5. Shanghai (China)6. Sport Center I (Vietnam)7. Sakai Blazers (Japan)8. Muharraq Club (Bahrain)9. Asia World (Myanmar)10. Royal China Express (Chinese Taipei)

China win Asian Women’s Club Championship and Chinese Taipei finish second

COnFEdErATIOnS

Tianjin Bridgestone ofChina finished first whileChunShanofChineseTaipeiplacedsecondat theAsian

Women’s Club Volleyball Champion-shipattheRizalMemorialColiseuminManila,Philippines.

Tianjin Bridgestone claimed the title with a perfect record of six wins from as many matches in the seven-team tournament. They defeated their last opponents host Philippines 3-0 (25-11,25-14,25-17) to clinch the title.

“This is the easiest match we had,” said coach Wang Baoquan through an inter-preter after the Chinese conquered the Filipinos in only 54 minutes.

“The Filipinos are good but they still need to work on their techniques. If they want to improve, they should play in more tour-naments too,” added Wang, who will start preparing the team for the China National League in December.

Chun Shan of Chinese Taipei outlasted Hisamitsu Seiyaku of Japan 3-1 (25-18, 25-11, 25-27, 25-22) on the last day to finish second. Banking on the powerful spikes of Lin Ching I and Lin Chun Yu, the Taiwan-ese recovered from a third-set loss to claim their fifth straight win in six outings.

“The players gave their best, that is the most important thing,” said Chinese Tai-pei head coach Lin Kuang Hung.

Lin Ching I played brilliantly throughout the one hour, 27 minute match, coming up with 19 kills and five blocks, while Lin Chun Yi chipped in 14 points and Kou Nai Han had 13 points, including a spike that gave Chinese Taipei a 20-18 lead in the fourth set.

Japan, which finished fifth with a 2-4 record, tried to fight back behind Yuki Kimura, who had 15 kills, but Chinese Taipei tightened its defense to preserve the win. Chen Shu Li, who had two service aces, and Chen Mei Ching contributed

11 points each for the Taiwanese, who took a 19-16 lead in the third set before Mihoko Tsuitsui, Mayumi Watanabe and Aya Mikami joined hands in a rally that enabled the Japanese to take the set at 27-25.

Sangsom of Thailand settled for third place honors with a 4-2 record after beat-ing host Accel of the Philippines 3-0 (25-11, 25-21, 25-13). Wilawan Apinyapong starred for Thailand in the 58-minute match, finishing with 14 kills and one service ace.

Rahat of Kazakhstan rallied past Garuda of Indonesia 3-1(25-18, 25-18, 19-25, 25-12) to finish fourth with three wins and three losses. The Filipinos, who absorbed their fifth straight loss, placed sixth with a 1-5 card, while the Indons were last with a 0-6 record.

final team ranking1. Tianjin Bridgestone (China)2. Chun Shan (Chinese Taipei)3. Sangsom (Thailand)4. Rahat (Kazakhstan)5. Hisamitsu Seiyaku (Japan)6. Accel (Philippines)7. Garuda (Indonesia)

Sport Center I of Vietnam playing Sakai Blazers of Japan

The victorious Paykan of Iran

� fiVB World Volley news no.5 July 2006

World Volley News • Official Bulletin of the FIVB • Av. de la Gare 12 • CH-1001 Lausanne • Printed in Switzerland • FIVB founded in 1947 • Pres. Dr. Rubén Acosta H.Tel. + 41 21 345 35 35 • Fax + 41 21 345 35 45 • Web Site : www.fivb.org • E-mail : press@fivb.org • Editor : Communication Department • No. 5 • July 2006

Volleyball

As national teams begin to focus ontheupcomingWorldLeagueandWorldGrand Prix tournaments and, ulti-mately,theFIVBWorldChampionshipstowardstheendoftheyear,it’sworthnoting that the month of June sawnolessthanfourdifferentVolleyballWorldChampionships.

Fort Huachuca in Arizona, USA, hosted the 27th World Military Volleyball Cham-pionships for men and women from 10-17 June.

In the women’s competition, the results were close to those of the international professional teams, with China taking the gold medal, USA the silver and Nether-lands the bronze.

In the men’s competition, however, it was Korea that took gold, Germany silver and, surprisingly, Qatar to take bronze after a convincing victory over China.

From 18 - 25 June, the “Triple World Championships” in Volleyball for the dis-abled were held in Roermond, the Neth-erlands, with standing Volleyball for men and sitting Volleyball for men and women.

Canada achieved the infamous “three-peat” after avenging an opening round loss to Germany in the finals. The bronze medal was taken by Slovakia.

Elated at his team’s performance, Cana-dian veteran Neil Johnson said “This tournament was a demonstration of how deep and how good our team is. We’re not simply a one generation success story. We’re incredibly proud of this victory – to bring the Gold home to Canada once again makes us all very proud to wear the Maple Leaf.”

DATES EVENT COUNTRY CONF. M/W

2006 Global Calendar - Competitions and Events - Volleyball and Beach Volleyball

July 1-2 2006-2007 Men’s ECH 2nd round, 6th leg Various venues CEV MJuly 1-9 Sub-18 Continental Championship USA NORCECA WJuly 4-8 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Marseille, France FIVB WJuly 5-9 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Marseille, France FIVB MJuly 7-9 CAZOVA Beach Volleyball Tour Trinidad & Tobago NORCECA M/WJuly 7-15 Caribbean Championship CAZOVA Jamaica NORCECA WJuly 12-16 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Montréal, Canada FIVB WJuly 12-16 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Montréal, Canada FIVB MJuly 14-16 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 1 Various venues FIVB MJuly 14-30 XXth Central American & Caribbean Sport Games Cartagena, Colombia NORCECA M/WJuly 18-22 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open St. Petersburg, Russia FIVB WJuly 19-23 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open St. Petersburg, Russia FIVB MJuly 20-23 Beach Volleyball NESTEA ECH Tour Spanish Masters Valencia, Spain CEV M/WJuly 21-23 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 2 Various venues FIVB MJuly 21-23 FIVB Beach Volleyball Exhibition Rapperswil, Switzerland FIVB M/WJuly 21-29 Caribbean Championship CAZOVA Jamaica NORCECA MJuly 21-23 European League Various venues CEVJuly 22-24 Asia Challenge Cup Korea & Japan AVCJuly 25-29 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Paris, France FIVB WJuly 25-29 FIVB Beach Volleyball Challenger Atlantida Beach, Cyprus FIVB WJuly 26-30 FIVB Beach Volleyball Challenger Atlantida Beach, Cyprus FIVB MJuly 26-30 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Paris, France FIVB MJuly 27-30 U-18 Beach Volleyball ECH 2006 Bratislava, Slovakia CEVJuly 28-30 European League Various venues CEVJuly 28-30 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 3 Various venues FIVB MJuly 28-30 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Casablanca, Morocco FIVB MJuly 28-30 Stage of South American Beach Volleyball Esmeraldas, Equator CSV M/WJuly 29-31 Asia Challenge Cup Korea & Japan AVCJuly 29 - August 8 Sub-20 Continental Championship Monterrey, Mexico NORCECA WAugust M/W’s Beach Volleyball Tour (2 Legs) Indonesia AVC M/WAugust 2-5 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Klagenfurt, Austria FIVB WAugust 2-6 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Klagenfurt, Austria FIVB MAugust 4-6 European League Various venues CEVAugust 4-6 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 4 Various venues FIVB MAugust 5-8 Beach Volleyball NESTEA ECH Tour Swiss Masters Lucerne, Switzerland CEVAugust 6-14 Sub-21 Continental Championship Monterrey, Mexico NORCECA MAugust 6-14 Sub-19 Continental Championship Santo Domingo, Dom.Rep. NORCECA MAugust 9-12 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Lausanne, Switzerland FIVB WAugust 9-13 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Stare Jablonki, Poland FIVB MAugust 10-13 U-23 European Beach Volleyball Championships 2006 St. Pölten, Austria CEVAugust 10-12 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Vaduz, Liechtenstein FIVB WAugust 10-13 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Lausanne, Switzerland FIVB MAugust 11-12 FIVB Beach Volleyball Exhibition Lausanne, Switzerland FIVB WAugust 11-13 European League Various venues CEVAugust 11-13 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 5 Various venues FIVB MAugust 16 FIVB Beach Volleyball Country vs. Country Turku, Finland FIVB MAugust 16-20 World Grand Prix Pools A-B-C Week 1 Various venues FIVB WAugust 16-19 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Vaduz, Liechtenstein FIVB WAugust 17-20 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Turku, Finland FIVB WAugust 17-20 FIVB Beach Volleyball Satellite Vaduz, Liechtenstein FIVB MAugust 18-20 World League 2006 Interc. Round Pools A-B-C-D Week 6 Various venues FIVB MAugust 18-27 9th African Nations Championship Youth Kelibia, Tunisia CAVB MAugust 19-20 European League Izmir, Turkey CEVAugust 20-30 8th African Nations Championship - Youth Bejaia, Algeria CAVB WAugust 23-27 World League 2006 Final Round Moscow, Russia FIVB MAugust 24-27 Beach Volleyball NESTEA ECH Final The Hague, Netherlands CEVAugust 25-27 World Grand Prix Pools D-E-F Week 2 Various venues FIVBAug. 26-Sept.3 Women’s Junior ECH (U-19) Final Round St-Dié & Metz, France CEV WAugust 29 FIVB Legal Commission Meeting Lausanne, Switzerland FIVBAug. 30 - Sept. 3 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Open Warsaw, Poland FIVB WAugust 31 FIVB Sports Events Council Meeting Lausanne, Switzerland FIVB

The “other” World Championships

VOLLEYBALL mEn & wOmEn

> Web news...Following last month’s small web news column, we have already received news of other websites covering different areas of the sport. Here is our surfer’s selection for this month:A commercial Volleyball consultation serv-ice (in English) www.snaplikeapig.com The new website of Puerto Rican Olympic Beach Volleyball player Raul Papaleowww.rpapaleo.netIf you have any interesting links that you would like to share: press@fivb.org