VolleyRuller96

(Sorry for not updating yesterday, I was sick ) 2nd Group Stage DAY 1 RESULTS 1st to 8th Place Games 9th to 16th Place Games

Anyone knows if there were any controversial incidents so far? I was pretty shocked when I read all the stuff that happened the last time Apia hosted the games. To quote wikipedia: The religious sensitivities of the host nation (which is primarily Congregationalist Christian) and other participants resulted in several controversial decisions during the organisation and running of the Games. Athletes in the women's beach volleyball event were required to wear shorts and T-shirts as opposed to the regulation bikini-style outfits to avoid offending family members and other spectators. A leaked internal memo by Team Samoa authorities was circulated prior to the event warning Samoan athletes not to engage in homosexual intercourse declaring it as "ungodly", stating: "do not embarrass yourself, your family and your country by trying this in the village...Best not to even think about this. It's against the law of God!" Such activity is prohibited under Samoan law and punishable by up to five years' imprisonment. However, the ban on homosexual intercourse was later lifted by organising committee chairman Tapasu Lueng Wai. A campaign to issue athletes condoms and advice on sexually transmitted infections also met with resistance from religious leaders. The Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Samoa, Alapati Mataeliga suggested that, in doing so, the authorities were encouraging extra-marital sexual activity which was frowned upon by the church.[ Games authorities also back-tracked on plans to issue athletes with female condoms after fears it might "expose young athletes to sex." Male condoms were nevertheless distributed.

How is that even possible I'd understand Australia or New Zealand but...Vanuatu ?

We have a thread about our favorite sports, about scandals, about budgets for sports in our nations but surprisingly I didn't find a thread where we could share the best funny moments from our favorite sports So let me start with something which maybe isn't a clear SPORT fail, but... It was the year 2017, and our women's volleyball team trained before the start of European Championship, which were held in and . Our national Volleyball Association wanted to demonstrate the distance between Warsaw and Baku, and decided to show it by using a map of Europe. Which, according to them, looks like this: Once again, the year was 2017

Volleyball, Basketball, Handball - no changes for me From the new sports, I picked 3x3 Basket and Sport Climbing

Honestly, I think it's fair that they want to include teams from all the continents (and if I remember correctly this is a requirement for Olympic Sports ). They want to promote the sport, and since all other sports are increasing the number of teams at major competitions (there's going to be 24 teams at EuroVolley, 32 teams in the next Handball World Cup, 32 teams in the Basketball World Cup later this year) they could lose fans to other disciplines. But they should really distribute the quotas better or even change the format completely. I mean, as a person who doesn't know anything about this sport, but is remotely interested in the results of big events in most disciplines, a score of 33-0 in a World Championship game doesn't convince me to start following this sport regularly . Perhaps a division system, like in Ice Hockey would work better? Say 12 teams in Group 1, 12 teams in Group 2 etc.

33-0 64-0 22-3 ... and that's just after 1 day of competition... I don't think the 16-team World Cup format is working for this sport... at least not for the Women's Event.

Group standings after DAY 3 (FINAL GROUP STAGE DAY)

Competition day 3 RESULTS

OVERALL COMPETITION MEDAL SUMMARY EDITION HOST COUNTRY 1st PLACE 2nd PLACE 3rd PLACE 4th PLACE 1 (2018) France Russia France USA Brazil 2 (2019) United States Russia USA Poland Brazil OVERALL MEDAL RANKING Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze 1. Russia 2 0 0 2. USA 0 1 1 3. France 0 1 0 4. Poland 0 0 1

FINAL COMPETITION STANDINGS 1. RUSSIA 2. UNITED STATES 3. POLAND ------------------------------------- 4. BRAZIL 5. FRANCE 5. IRAN 7. ARGENTINA 8. ITALY 9. CANADA 10. JAPAN 11. SERBIA 12. BULGARIA 13. AUSTRALIA 14. GERMANY 15. PORTUGAL (R*) 16. SOUTH KOREA * R = Relegated Promoted to next year's VNL: SLOVENIA

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Fantastic ! Amazing! No words for this team

Competition day 3 schedule - ALL TIMES ARE CEST

Group standings after DAY 2

Competition day 2 RESULTS

3rd place game: 3 vs 0 (25-17 / 25-22 / 25-21) Gold Medal Match 1 vs 3 (23-25 / 25-20 / 21-25 / 20-25)

2nd match today, 2nd defeat OK, I'll be fair and admit that this SF is far more what anyone could expect from this young team. It was a close match, but Russia was better today. Still I think they are capable of winning the 3rd place match, especially if we play against Brazil (I think USA will win thanks to home advantage)

... and we lost, I knew I shouldn`t have opened my mouth still a silver is a big result, and while a bit disapointed today I am sure we will come to appreciate it in the future. Italy was simply better tonight, congrats to them

Btw if anyone's nterested you can watch the final men's volleyball game between and here

Just 1 set more Come on guys you can do it

Competition day 2 schedule - ALL TIMES ARE CEST

Group standings after DAY 1

Competition day 1 RESULTS

I have to say though I was neutral on the vs match, I feel a bit sorry for Iran. This is yet another tournament where they are SO close, but at the end achieve nothing. Can't believe this team has not won a medal in any worldwide tournament till now (Besides the ridiculous Grand Champions Cup even most diehard volley fans don't take seriously)

Semifinals: 1 vs 3 (19-25 / 26-24 / 22-25 / 21-25) 3 vs 2 (25-21 / 17-25 / 21-25 / 25-20 /.15-9)