FIVB reveals new World Rankings for men - Volleyball News
Under the leadership of Italian Head Coach, Andrea Anastasi, the Polish men’s national volleyball team managed to get hold of silver-ware at the recently ended 2011 FIVB World Cup in Japan. The Poles put up a great effort and paved their way to the final
showdown of the tournament. However, resilient rivals Russia proved to be too much for Poland as they took away the gold by winning the final match. Poland had to be content with the silver medal. Nevertheless, the silver medallist team emerged as the biggest
winner after the World Rankings were revealed. The World ranking table was updated on Monday, December 5 by the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB).
As a result of amendments in the points, Poland was shifted four places up on the chart and became the No. 4 team in the world with a total of 199.5 points. According to the new updated standings, top five men’s volleyball teams in the world are as followed:
Brazil – 300 points Russia – 270 points Italy – 226 points Poland – 199.5 points United States – 187 points
Brazil, Russia, and Italy remained unchanged on the chart. The defending champion Brazil finished third at the 2011 FIVB Men’s World Cup but maintained the top spot thanks to 300 points. Likewise, the Russians followed them up with a gap of only 30 points.
Russia’s performance in the competition was simply admirable. It is commonly believed that in the future if any team will surpass Brazil it will surely be Russia. This year, they added sixth gold medal to their tally. Italians managed to get hold of the fourth
position and remained unchanged in the third slot.
Elsewhere, USA was shifted one step down, in order to accommodate Poland. Currently, they sit in the fifth position on the international rankings.
Poland previously held the eighth spot but since they moved up on the chart Argentina filled up the spot. The South American's moved one place up and emptied the spot of Bulgaria. Bulgaria had to go two steps down as they did not compete at the 2011 FIVB
World Cup.
China finished in the the top ten, while Serbia also dropped two places to seventh after failing to find any momentum at the tournament. Egypt got lucky and moved above Germany to 11thposition. The Egyptians seized only one win in the tournament
but still improved on the ranking chart. Iranian team’s five wins and six losses saw them moving up one spot to 13th at the expense of Cameroon.
The only other change in the World Ranking was related to hosts Japan as they improved two spots to 16th as Puerto Rico and France dropped one spot each to 17th and 18th respectively.
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