10/03/2014 18:00
Teams drawn in Parma to officially kick-start Women’s World Champs
2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championship - Women
Parma, Italy, March 10, 2014. The Drawing of Lots for the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship Italy 2014 was held on Monday afternoon at the Teatro Farnese in Parma. The DOL ceremony was attended by FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F°, CEV President André Meyer and many other illustrious guests. The Championship will take place in six different cities – Milan, Rome, Bari, Modena, Trieste, and Verona – from September 23 through October 12.
Waiting for the qualification process to be completed in NORCECA, the composition of the four preliminary Pools reads as follows:
Pool A in Rome: Italy, NORCECA 2, Germany, Argentina, Croatia, and Tunisia
Pool B in Trieste: Brazil, Serbia, Turkey, NORCECA 4, Cameroon, and Bulgaria
Pool C in Verona: NORCECA 1, Russia, Thailand, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, and NORCECA 6
Pool D in Bari: Japan, China, NORCECA 3, NORCECA 5, Belgium, and Azerbaijan
The teams were drawn by three players representing past, present and future of women’s Volleyball in Italy. 2002 world champion Maurizia Cacciatori, one of the most popular Volleyball players all over the world in the late ‘90s and at the beginning of the past decade, was joined on stage by Sara Bonifacio, a member of the Italian national team that won silver at last year’s CEV Youth European Championship in Bar (Montenegro), and by Noura Mabilo, a 17-year old middle-blocker of African descent who was born in Trieste, one of the host cities of the World Champs.
Europe is represented at this year’s Women’s World Championship by 10 teams including hosts Italy; 2013 European champions Russia will try to complete what would be a terrific hat-trick after winning gold at the 2006 and 2010 editions of the World Championship that were both held in Japan. Hosts Italy recently appointed Marco Bonitta at the helm of their national team; he is the man who was behind Italy’s gold medal at the 2002 World Championship in Germany where the “Azzurre” claimed their first major international title. “I never expressed my opinion about the results of any DOL before,” Bonitta commented, “but I can say that we were assigned to a good Pool. We respect all of our opponents but we will try to make sure that they will respect us too.”
With the world watching, the official trophy of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 was also unveiled during the Drawing of Lots ceremony at the Teatro Farnese in Parma on Monday. The trophy’s unique contemporary design has set itself apart from other awards in international sporting competitions. With brass as its basic material, the women’s trophy weighs close to ten kilos. The trophy changes colour gradually from its base to its crown, moving from nickel to rose gold, exemplifying the winning team growing in confidence as they work through the stages of the Championship. The gold plated crown represents the team’s final achievement of a World Championship title.
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