Turkey to face top teams in Olympics

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish volleyball team will compete in the Olympic Games for the first time. AA photo

Turkish national women’s volleyball team will face solid opponents in London as the draws for the 2012 Olympic Games in London were made yesterday.

Turkey will meet USA, Olympic champions Brazil, China, South Korea and European champion Serbia in its group in the Olympic competition.

Host Britain, Japan, Russia, Italy, Algeria and the Dominican Republic will compete in the other group of the 12-team competition.

Turkey has won the ticket to London through the Olympic qualifying tournament last month. That will be the first time in more than half a century that Turkey will be represented in team sports in the Olympics and the first time that a Turkish volleyball team competes in the Olympics.

On May 27, European champion Serbia snatched the last berth in the women’s Olympic volleyball tournament after a dramatic 3-2 win over Japan, who also progressed to the London Games along with Russia and South Korea.

World champions Russia emphatically claimed its spot with seven wins out of seven while South Korea booked its passage with a 3-0 defeat of Peru earlier in the eight-team qualifying tournament in Japan.

Japan only needed to win two sets in the final match of the tournament to advance and having carved out a two sets to one lead, they were on the verge of knocking out Serbia when they edged ahead 16-13 on points in the fourth set.