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 CUB/CUBA
These are trying times for the
Cuban women’s Volleyball team with the ghosts of the
glory days of the recent past haunting their slow
progress. Indeed, those fantastic days of the 90s,
when Cuba won the Olympic Gold three times in
succession are still constantly talked about among
Volleyball aficionados around the world.
Coming off a sub-standard fifth-place finish at the
2002 World Championship in Germany, a far from
satisfactory 11th-place finish at the 2003 World
Grand Prix and a sixth at the 2003 World Cup a few
months later, people in Cuba have been praying for
rapid improvement in order to have some more medals
to cheer.
The three time world champions play a hard,
Russian-style power game and are traditionally
exceptional jumpers and strong hitters. Indeed a
former U.S. coach said of them “They are the best.
You love to watch them, but you don’t like to play
against them!”
The national team has included some of the world’s
great players but some of the side that won the gold
medal in Sydney 2000 have now retired. Younger
players are being drafted into the team to lay the
foundation for a solid performance in Athens 2004.
Finishing second at the 2003 Norceca Championships
did a lot to lift morale, as it booked their Olympic
ticket and helped Cuba to maintain sixth place on
the FIVB world ranking list. But after dominating
women’s Volleyball in the 1990s it is now in the
hands of the likes of Yumilka Ruiz, Barros Fernandez
and Mesa Luaces to lead a relatively inexperienced
side in to the winner’s circle, where their
predecessors have been so many times before.
Cuba has been three-times World Champion in 1978 –
Sankt Petersburg, 1994 – São Paulo, 1998 – Tokyo and
four-times World Cup winner (1989, 1991, 1995, and
1999). |
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