13/05/2015 11:56
16 teams to fight for tickets to U21 men’s / U20 women’s World Champs
2015 FIVB U20 Women / U21 Men Volleyball World Championship - European Qualification
Luxembourg, May 13, 2015. The second and last stage of the qualification process leading to this year’s FIVB Men’s U21 / Women’s U20 World Championships is coming up later this week with two tournaments per gender whose eventual winners will get the right to represent Europe in the respective global competition.
After a first qualifying round was played in early January, the second stage is now joined also by the gold and silver medallists from last year’s CEV U20 Men / U19 Women Volleyball European Championships, i.e. Russia and Poland / Serbia and Slovenia for the men’s and women’s competition, respectively.
The quest for a spot to compete at this year’s World Championships will get underway already on Thursday in Anapa where the hosts of Russia will be taking on Poland, Italy and Slovenia, with the latter having caused a sensation at last year’s European Championship when they won a historic silver medal in Tartu, Estonia. In the other Pool which is due to take place from Friday through Sunday in Ruma, 2014 European gold medallists Serbia (pictured) will test the likes of Turkey, France and the Czech Republic trying to exploit the home advantage and make it to the World Championship that was recently moved from its original venue – Cyprus – to Puerto Rico.
As for the men, the race for a spot to compete at the World Championship in Mexico won’t be less exciting. 2014 European silver medallists Poland are hosting Pool G in Belchatow, at the home of PGE Skra, one of the country’s Volleyball standouts. They will open their home campaign on Friday playing Italy before another two matches with Austria and France follow throughout the weekend. As for Pool H, hosts Slovenia will start by taking immediately on the toughest opponent, a Russian team whose players have dominated the international arena for the last couple of years also in the younger age groups. Belgium and Germany complete the line-up for the tournament taking place in Nova Gorica, just nearby the Italian border.
The upcoming tournaments will be covered extensively on the CEV website as well as on the CEV’s Facebook page and Twitter account. Make sure you also use the official hashtags #FIVBMensU21 and #FIVBWomensU20 on all of your posts and tweets!
Click here for more info including a detailed match programme
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