09/11/2011 12:26
Nine players of Lube Banca Marche busy with Olympic qualification process
News from the clubs
Macerata, Italy, November 9, 2011. Nine players of Lube Banca Marche MACERATA – one of Italy’s clubs competing in this year’s CEV Volleyball Champions League – will be busy this month with their respective national teams as they try to fulfill their dream to compete at the 2012 London Olympics.
Italy’s Cristian Savani, Dragan Travica and Simone Parodi will fly to Japan with the ambition to book their ticket to London directly there but this goal will be shared also by Marko Podrascanin and Dragan Stankovic, who in the Far East will defend the honors of 2011 European champion Serbia. Two more players, Igor Omrcen and Alen Pajenk, will be included in the roster representing Croatia and Slovenia respectively as an Olympic pre-qualification tournament is scheduled for late November in Osijek. Moreover, libero Jean-François Exiga and opposite Gert van Walle will play another Olympic pre-qualifier in Tourcoing with the sides of France and Belgium.
“This state confirms the absolute quality of our group” sais head coach Alberto Giuliani, “but on the other hand I am very worried because we will have only three players available to join our training sessions for the next four weeks. We have some very important matches coming up in December and we will have to tackle with this deficit to achieve our goals”.
Lube Banca Marche MACERATA is currently ranked second in Pool E of the 2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League after two rounds of play, and will resume the competition with a double header against Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK, playing first in Austria on December 15 and one week later at home. These games will be extremely important to pencil in the final standings of the group and determine who will ultimately make it to the Playoffs 12.
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