Winners
In Curitiba, Brazil, the French team won their second title in the history of this competition after a great victory over the hosts, who definitely didn’t have the luck to climb to the highest podium. Maybe Brazil didn’t win the gold which they wanted so much but at the end, they have taken their 20th medal in World League.
On the other side, the biggest surprise was Canada who won their first medal ever in World League, the bronze. For sure, the French coach Stéphane Antiga couldn’t image the better start of his work as the new leader of the Canadian team.
The way to the final tournament was not easy. Many teams have rejuvenated their rosters, but ultimately only the best came to Curitiba.
In Brazil, six teams have competed in two groups, and only two of them went to the semifinals.
Further placement is known.
This year, the winners again were led by a great Earvin Ngapeth who was named for the MVP.
In the Week 1 of the Preliminary round France beat Bulgaria 3-0, then was stronger than Russia 3-1 and in the last match of the tournament in Kazan, they outplayed Argentina 3-0.
In the next week at the home soil, France again defeated Russia 3-1, then they played an amazing match with Italy and celebrated the win of 3-1 and in the last match, they crushed USA also 3-1.
The third week of the World League France has started with a 3-2 defeat against Italy in Antwerp. Next day they defeated Canada in the straight sets and the preliminary round finished with a 3-0 victory over Belgium.
A two-week break followed and the team of coach Laurent Tilliecame to Curitiba with the big desire to play good and to try to win the new medal in this competition.
At the first day of Final Six France again met with the USA, this time barely beat them 3-2. Two days later they also outplayed Serbia 3-2 and in that way eliminated the title-holders from the competition.
In the semifinal France played with Canada and after four sets celebrated the big victory. Next day they started the match for the gold medal around 23:30 by local time and after long five sets defeated Brazil 3-2 and took the second gold in the history of the World League.
After the last point in the match, France started big celebration which continued on the podium.
If you missed those moments, watch the video below.
Also, if you missed all interesting things from Final Six, you should read WOV BLOG from Curitiba.
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