Beijing, China, June 11, 2008 -- FIVB, in cooperation with the Chinese Volleyball Association and BOCOG, hosted on June 11 Wednesday afternoon in Beijing the drawing of lots for the Volleyball Tournaments of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which will be played from 9th to 24th August, 2008.
The drawing of lots for the Women’s and Men’s Olympic Volleyball Tournaments took place in the Press Conference Room of the Olympic Volleyball venue, the newly renovated 18,000 seat Capital Indoor Stadium, which will stage the Olympic Volleyball Tournaments preliminary round and the finals.
More than 100 media representatives from China and other countries, including representatives from Serbia and Brazil’s Embassy in Beijing, attended the official draw ceremony, and the FIVB Anthem was played at the ceremony..
The qualified teams, 12 men and 12 women’s teams, have been drawn into two pools of six teams each under the supervision of FIVB First Executive Vice-President Wei Jizhong and with the assistance of Vice-President of the Chinese Volleyball Association Li Quanqiang and Director of BOCOG Sports Department Zhang Jilong.
The drawing followed the Serpentine system based on the World rankings published on January 5, 2008 to complete the pools.
Olympic Volleyball Tournament for Women to be played from 9th to 23rd of August, 2008
The 12 women’s qualified teams are China, Italy, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Russia, Cuba), Venezuela, Poland, Serbia) and Japan.
Composition:
Pool A: China (A5), Cuba (A4), USA(A6), Japan(A1), Poland(A3),
Venezuela(A2)
Pool B: Brazil(B6), Italy(B3), Russia(B4), Serbia(B2), Kazakhstan(b5),
Algeria(B1)..
Preliminary Round:
The preliminary pool round will be played on the round-robin base to decide the pool’s rankings with the top four teams in each pool entering into the quarterfinals.
The exact match time for each day in the preliminary round will be decided by BOCOG after consultation with TV, and then will be submitted to FIVB for Approval.
The calendar of the preliminary round from 9th to 17th, August:
9th August, Saturday, 2008:
Pool A: Japan vs. USA
Venezuela vs. China
Poland vs. Cuba
Pool B: Algeria vs. Brazil
Serbia vs. Kazakhstan
Italy vs. Russia
11th August, Monday, 2008
Pool A: USA vs. Cuba
China vs. Poland
Japan vs. Venezuela
Pool B: Brazil vs. Russia
Kazakhstan vs. Italy
Algeria vs. Serbia
13th August, Wednesday, 2008
Pool A: Venezuela vs. USA
Poland vs. Japan
Cuba vs. China
Pool B: Serbia vs. Brazil
Italy vs. Algeria
Russia vs. Kazakhstan
15th August, Friday, 2008:
Pool A: USA vs. China
Japan vs. Cuba
Venezuela vs. Poland
Pool B: Brazil vs. Kazakhstan
Algeria vs. Russia
Serbia vs. Italy
17th August, Sunday, 2008:
Pool A: Poland vs. USA
Cuba vs. Venezuela
China vs. Japan
Pool B: Italy vs. Brazil
Russia vs. Serbia
Kazakhstan vs. Algeria
Olympic Volleyball Tournament for Men to be played from 9th to 24th of August, 2008
The qualified teams are defending Olympic champions Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Japan, Serbia, USA, Venezuela, Germany, Italy, and Poland.
Composition:
Pool A: China(A4), USA(A1), Bulgaria(A3), Italy(A2), Japan(A5), Venezuela
(A6)
Pool B: Brazil(B2), Russia(B6), Poland(B3), Serbia(B1), Egypt(B5), Germany
(B4)
Preliminary Round:
The preliminary pool round will be played on the round-robin base to decide the pool’s rankings with the top four teams in each pool entering into the quarterfinals.
The exact match time for each day in the preliminary round will be decided by BOCOG after consultation with TV, and then will be submitted to FIVB for Approval.
The calendar of the preliminary round from 10th to 18th, August:
10th August, Sunday 2008:
Pool A: USA vs. Venezuela
Italy vs. Japan
Bulgaria vs. China
Pool B: Serbia vs. Russia
Brazil vs. Egypt
Poland vs. Germany
12th August, Tuesday, 2008
Pool A: Venezuela vs. China
Japan vs. Bulgaria
USA vs. Italy
Pool B: Russia vs. Germany
Egypt vs. Poland
Serbia vs. Brazil
14th August, Thursday, 2008::
Pool A: Italy vs. Venezuela
Bulgaria vs. USA
China vs. Japan
Pool B: Brazil vs. Russia
Poland vs. Serbia
Germany vs. Egypt
16th August, Saturday, 2008:
Pool A: Venezuela vs. Japan
USA vs. China
Italy vs. Bulgaria
Pool B: Russia vs. Egypt
Serbia vs. Germany
Brazil vs. Poland
18th August, Monday, 2008:
Pool A: Bulgaria vs. Venezuela
China vs. Italy
Japan vs. USA
Pool B: Poland vs. Russia
Germany vs. brazil
Egypt vs. Serbia.
As for the Quarterfinals, FIVB First Executive Vice-President Wei Jizhong told a press conference after the official draw ceremony that A1 will play against B4 and B1 compete with A4 in the quarter-finals, with the winner entering the semi-finals. But the other four teams, namely A2, A3, B2 and B3, will have another draw to determine the order of matches. Mr. Wei explained that the purpose of this measure is to be more fair and to avoid any losing a match on purpose as happened in Athens Olympic Games. He said the final decision will be made at the coming FIVB Congress in Dubai.
Algeria