Russia bags gold – 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship
Men’s Junior National Team of Russia wrote a new chapter in the history of volleyball by collecting its 8th Junior World Title on Wednesday, August 10.
Russia was challenged by men in ‘sky blue and white’ shirts’ in the crucial final match of 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship. Russians performed amazingly well and posted 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 25-18, and 15-12) victory over Argentina. All the
action was staged at Maracanazinho gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Argentina was top ranked team on the FIVB Youth and Junior World chart but second ranked Russia proved to better side and walked away with the important victory.
Russian opposite Andrey Kolesnik, Oleg Tsentalovich, Leonid Shchadilov, and Argentineans Nicolas Mendez and Agustín Ramonda found their names on the list of top-scorers of the match. Kolesnik of Russia chipped in match-high 18 points, while the two other
Russians contributed 12 points apiece. Ramona and Mendez of Argentina added 15 and 14 points, respectively. Leonid Shchadilov of Russia was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match.
Russia had a good attack strategy at the beginning of first set, which helped them lead the scores with 8-3. Argentina couldn’t penetrate the power of swift spikes and trailed behind. Russian team enjoyed a great form and continued putting more and more
effort into their game. They extended the gap of points and maintained their lead up till the end of first set. Argentina suffered the set-back and received 19-25 defeat in opening set.
Russian started off things in the second set and jumped to an early lead. However, Argentina retaliated and lessened the gap of points. The spirited effort of Argentineans led them to success in second set. They closed the set with 2-point margin and equalled
the game-score.
During rest of the game, both teams staged a point-to-point fight. Argentina continued with success in third set and extended its lead to 2-1. However, Russia came strong in the following two set and captured both sets Argentina was defeated in a dramatic
way but Russia had the gold-ware anyway.
Argentinean Head Coach Juan Manuel Cichello said, “I wish to congratulate Russia, but also my team as we played a great tournament without having the star players Russia has. We are real champions too. I am happy for playing Argentina’s first gold match,
but I am also sad as we got very close of the win but could not make it.”
The mentor of Russian Team Sergey Shlyapnikov had good reason to smile after winning the final match. He also shared his thoughts about the match. He stated, “A gold medal is everything. That's how I feel. We had a lot of information about Argentina and
we knew it was going to be a tough game. I think the key for us was a quick recovery from our psychological problems.”
Skipper of Team Argentine, Juan Ignacio Finoli regretted the loss of important match. In his view, Russia has some bad moments in the game but it was unfortunate for Argentina that it couldn’t take any advantage of them. Dmitry Kovalev, the Russian Captain
was glad about match victory. He called it a real show in the final match.
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