Saori Kimura (left)
The first weekend of the 2013 World Grand Prix has come to an end, and our FIVB Heroes have already proved it will be a great tournament, displaying inspiring volleyball for the fans.
Leading the standings after the first three days of competition with 9 points is Japan and FIVB Hero Saori Kimura. Although already qualified for the finals as the host country, the Olympic bronze medalists went easy on no one and dominated pool C. They beat Thailand and Algeria in straight sets and completed the weekend with a 3-1 (25-21, 30-28, 18-25, 25-18) win against Turkey in Ankara, disappointing the local fans.
It was an incredible FIVB Heroes face-off, with Saori scoring 17 points and Neslihan Darnel 16. “Winning the match against powerful Turkey, in front of Turkish fans, with young players is really good motivation for us. We want to play well in every week of the Grand Prix”, said capitan Saori Kimura. It was not a bad start for Turkey also however. Despite the loss, the Turkish FIVB Hero and her teammates managed to win the other two games in the pool adding 6 points to their ranking.
Like Japan, China, with FIVB Hero Yimei Wang, and Serbia, with duo Jovana Brakočević and Jelena Nikolić, also finished the first weekend at the top with 9 points scored after outplaying their opponents in their respective pools.
Playing in Macau, China managed solid 3-0 wins against Bulgaria and Cuba – with Wang scoring 11 points in each match – to then beat the Netherlands, with FIVB Hero Manon Flier, on Sunday by 3-1 (26-24, 19-25, 25-17, 25-17). While Yimei Wang added 13 points to her team’s victory, the Dutch star was not listed to be on court. Manon has just joined the team, and is still in the early stages of preparation. She will probably slowly increase her appearances in the weekends to follow, as the Dutch team needs to improve their winning record, after taking only 3 points with an opening 3-0 victory against Cuba (25-20, 25-14, 25-11).
In Pool B, in Santo Domingo, Serbia benefited from some great performances from FIVB Hero Jovana Brakočević to overcome the Dominican Republic (25-13, 25-20, 25-16), the Czech Republic (28-26, 25-18, 25-23) and Puerto Rico (25-22, 22-25, 25-17, 25-22). The MVP of the last Champions League scored a total of 55 points in three matches and is the third best attacker after this first round. Fellow teammate and FIVB Hero Jelena Nikolić played in their last game, adding 9 points.
Brazilian FIVB Hero Sheilla Castro also has many reasons to celebrate. Brazil had a tough Pool and started all three matches behind. But with the help of their vocal crowd in Campinas, managed to pull off three important victories against Poland (21-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-20), Russia (26-28, 26-24, 25-19, 22-25, 15-8) and the USA (17-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-20) to reach 8 points and fifth place in the standings.
Still not in her best shape and recovering from flu that she picked up during the week, Sheilla started the first weekend on the Brazilian bench, but tried to help her teammates when needed, making some decisive interventions.
Poland and FIVB Hero Joanna Kaczor didn’t have the same fate. Despite winning some good sets, they leave Campinas with just 1 point after loosing to Russia in five sets in their closest match (21-25, 25-22, 27-29, 30-28, 13-15) – Kaczor scored 12 points.
And after winning their debut match against Kazakhstan in Italy by 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-17), Germany and FIVB Hero Margareta Kozuch – who scored 20 points in the opening game – ended up struggling and losing against Argentina (23-25, 2513, 25-18, 21-25, 12-15) and Italy (23-25, 20-25, 26-24, 20-25). With 51 points scored in the first weekend, Maggie is the eighth best scorer in the Grand Prix, and will try to help her teammates again next weekend so they improve their winning record to reach the Final Round.
To read more articles click on Latest news.
