Russia takes away Olympic gold medal in men’s category– Volleyball News
The final showdown of Men’s Olympic volleyball tournament brought two top-notch rivals together on the centre court. Russia clashed with Brazil and pulled off success in a five-set thriller, 3-2 (19-25, 20-25, 29-27, 25-22 and 15-9).
The packed-up Earls Court in London provided backdrop for the most influential match of the campaign. Both teams staged an extreme action on the net, but victory graced only one side which happened to be Russia.
Russian men claimed the Olympic gold medal after a break of almost 32 years. Previously, Russia settled for the Olympic titles in 1964, 1968, and 1980. The team coached by Vladimir Alekno did a great job and brought Russia back in the business.
Dmitriy Muserskiy played an instrumental role in Russia’s victory. He totalled match-high 31 points. He added 28 spikes and one serve ace in the match. He was followed by Maxim Mikhaylov and Sergey Tetyukhin, who also contributed to the overall success of
the team. They added 17 and 12 points respectively.
On the other hand, Brazilian side was supported by 27 points from Wallace de Souza. Murilo Endres and Junior Santos added 18 and 14 points, in the loss.
Brazilian team came out firing in the first set and started an early strike of volleys. With good attack and defence, Brazil managed to put off Russia in the opening stanza of the match (25-19). Moreover, Brazil continued with success in the second set and
extended its lead to 2-0.
It seemed as if Russia was going to lose the contest in straight sets. However, the team improved and gave a good competition to Brazil in the third set Russians won the set and got their full form back. Brazil also dropped next two sets and ended up on
the losing side.
Russia’s Coach Vladimir Alekno referred the final victory to a Russian novel ‘Twelve Chairs’ and stated: “It’s an ‘idiot’s dream coming true.” Nonetheless, the winning coach congratulated his team for putting up such a nice show of volleyball and winning
the Olympic gold medal.
His Brazilian counterpart Bruno Rezende also shared his thoughts about the match. He seemed visibly disappointed and commented in the following manner: “Now we have to learn to live with these consequences. We had the chance but now we have to show up and
take the chances. The match doesn’t have an explanation after winning the first two sets and losing the next three. With all the problems we’ve overcome, it’s okay to win a silver medal. We’re obviously angry and very disappointed, especially starting out
so good and then losing it.”
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