Women’s premier international volleyball competition, the 2012 FIVB Grand Prix
The FIVB World Grand Prix is one of the major women’s volleyball events of the year. The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) conceptualised this event in the 90’s and the first edition of World Grand Prix successfully completed its run in 1993. Since
then the tournament is held annually and teams from every nook and cranny of the world join the amazing volleyball scrimmage.
This year, the FIVB World Grand Prix is supposed to complete the 20th flight which is a great success. The 2012 FIVB World Grand is scheduled to be kicked off on June 8 and a total of sixteen teams will be on board to showcase their wonderful game tactics
to the international audience.
The tournament will be opened with the preliminary round-robin, which will cover its length over a period of three weeks. The grid of 16 teams will be divided into four pools, where each pool will be composed of equal number of teams. The opening round of
the tournament will be hosted by various countries. However, the final round of the championship is set to take place in Ningbo, China from June 27 to July 1.
China earned the qualification for being the host of the final round of the competition. Brazil and Argentina clawed their way to the 20th edition of World Grand Prix via CSV Playoffs. Likewise, the North and Central American & Caribbean Federation (NORCECA)
sent four teams in the competition. Dominican Republic, United States, Cuba, and Puerto Rico will play under the tag of NORCECA Teams.
Japan, Thailand, and South Korea will represent the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC). These three teams earned the spots in 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix by proving their endeavours at the Asian Volleyball Championship, which took place late last year in
Chinese Taipei.
Five European teams will also be playing at the upcoming women’s premier international tournament. The European qualifiers of the World Grand Prix include Serbia, Germany, Turkey, Italy, and Poland. The Confederation European de Volleyball (CEV) arranged
the Playoffs for World Grand Prix in two countries and finally top five teams got through.
Last but not the least Chinese Taipei overcame Algeria in a tough competition to clinch the last empty slot in the competition. Algeria hosted the Playoffs in October, 2011 but failed to profit the home advantage. Chinese Taipei proved to be better and secured
a place in the 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix.
Nonetheless, it was an interesting predicament at the Playoffs, which featured only two matches. Host Algeria lost the first match but managed to win the next match. It was great comeback by Algerian team but Chinese Taipei clinched the berth on account
of its better set & point ratio.
The qualification phase is over now and top 16 teams have been confirmed for the competition. The FIVB has already announced the pool composition for preliminary round-robin. According to the set formula of the competition, participants of the campaign will
be placed with different pools members in each week. Hence, the teams will get to meet a variety of opponents.
US team is the defending champion of the 2012 World Grand Prix, while Brazil and Serbia will enter as the silver and bronze medallist teams.
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