Indonesia claims Volleyball championship
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Indonesia claimed the title at the Under-185 centimeters World Volleyball Championship after defeating Japan 3-1 on Sunday's match and erasing Chinese Taipei's hope of capture the Borobudur Cup.
With only slight point differences, Indonesia was awarded first place followed by Chinese Taipei, while Myanmar took third place followed by Japan and Russia.
Indonesia won 25-23 in the first set but Japan managed to steal the second set winning 25-23.
Urged on by hundreds of local supporters, Indonesian players bounced back to claim the third set 25-22 and continued its winning streak by grabbing the fourth set in 25-23.
Indonesia's Robby Meliala was also announced as the best spiker in the competition, while Chinese Taipei's Chih Chiang Lien grabbed the best blocker award.
Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei had little difficulty in dispatching Russia in a 3-0 loss that took less than an hour.
Russia tried to strengthen its defense by putting three blockers in front, and mostly relying on soft passing of the ball instead of smashing it hard to the opponent's side of the court.
However, Taipei still could collect points since most of the Russian players sent the ball too deep and out of bounds. Chinese Taipei managed to level the score at 9-9 and began to pick up its pace by using one of the team's best spikers, Chen Chih Chiang, to breach the Russian defense.
Although Russia's Dmitri Mikhailov had tried his best to attack the Taipei defense but he only found Taipei's blockers Cheng Hsun Ho and Ming Jui Chuang.
Taipei claimed the first set by winning 25-18 in just over 15 minutes.
However, the second set was much tougher for the Taiwanese as the Russians began to shift their strategy by repositioning their main spikers, the twin brothers Dmitri Mikhailov and Serguei Mikhailov.
The attempt was much more successful, although Chinese Taipei still managed to finish it 25-22.
Leading 2-0 in the first two sets, the Taiwanese players were more than eager to finish the third set and relished their 3-0 victory over Russia, just as head coach Chang Mu San had predicted earlier. Photo -- Page 10