A talented new generation
looking towards the 2012 Olympics
 July 21, 2005 - The FIVB Girls’ Under 18 World Championship
is coming to town. More specifically it’s coming to Macau,
the former Portuguese enclave that returned to Chinese rule
in December 1999.
The opening ceremony of the 16-team championship takes place
on Saturday at the impressive Macau East Asian Games Dome,
one of two venues to be used for the three day, 24-game
preliminary round. The other is the Tap Seac Multisport
Pavilion, which will then monopolise the action from the
play-off games on July 27 through to the final day, July 31.
The dome, which seats 7,000 spectators, will stage the games
of Pool A and Pool B from Saturday to Monday, but all 16
teams will gather at the space-age stadium for the opening
ceremony, and for the official welcome dinner on Friday
evening.
"These girls are playing their first big event seeking fame
and glory which enables them to meet other top world teams
and start a dazzling career to the top. We hope their career
will bring to Volleyball a new fresh artistic and athletic
concept," said the FIVB President, Dr Rubén Acosta.
"We were fortunate enough to come over early, and the
organisation to date has been extremely good," said Rich
Zeciski, Team Leader of USA, who arrived in Macau on Monday
after an exhausting journey that started from Colorado
Springs and continued through Los Angeles, Incheon in South
Korea and Hong Kong. The last leg was the jet foil across
the South China Sea.
"It was about 32 hours, but we stopped counting after 24,"
said Zeciski. The United States finished fourth in 2003, and
will be targeting a medal this time on their fourth
appearance.
The top team in each group is guaranteed a spot in the
quarter-finals, while the bottom team is eliminated. The
eight teams finishing second and third in the four groups
will enter a play-off elimination round, with the winners
completing the line-up for the quarter-finals, and the
losers going home.
Pool A: Macau, Argentina, Egypt, Croatia.
Pool B: China, Korea, Ukraine, Austria.
Pool C: Brazil, Russia, Puerto Rico, Belarus.
Pool D: USA, Italy, Chinese Taipei, Tunisia. |
