Russia defeats China for bronze medal

Erica Bulman, Associated Press, Berlin

Russia defeated China 3-1 on Saturday in a battle between former- world champions fighting to save face with a bronze medal from the women's Volleyball World Championships.

The towering Russians proved too powerful for the smaller and less stable Chinese side, defeating the Asians 25-20, 21-25, 25- 23, 25-16.

"We're not satisfied overall. We wanted more but I guess a medal is good anyway," Russia team captain Evguenia Artamonova said.

This season's World Grand Prix winner as well as three-time reigning European champion, Russia arrived at the championship as a heavy title favorite.

However, the European side encountered unexpected difficulty, losing to the United States in the opening round, laboring to defeat Italy and Cuba in the second, before once again losing to the U.S. side in the semifinals.

The Chinese team suffered losses to Greece and South Korea in the preliminary rounds, struggled to overcome Brazil in five sets in the quarterfinals before losing to Italy in the semis.

Russia or the former-Soviet Union claimed the world title in 1952, '56, '60, '70 and '90, while China triumphed in 1982 and '86.

The Chinese started off stronger than the European side, but the Russians took over the lead midway through the opening set to go 16-12.

The highly-anticipated clash between the towering 2.05-meter Russian Ekaterina Gamova and the 1.96-meter Chinese Ruirui Zhao was at its fiercest near the end of the set, marked by several long rallies. It was the more focused Russians, however, who went ahead 1-0.

In the second set, China's attacks and blocks were more efficient than Russia's, lifting them to a 15-9 lead after a five-point scoring flurry.

Russia managed to narrow the gap to 20-23 thanks to some jump serves by Elena Plotnikova but there was too much ground to make up and Hao Yang spiked China into a draw.

Russia prevailed in a close third set.

Then with a series of power attacks by Gamova and Artamonova, the European side jumped to a 9-4 lead in the fourth.

Looking tired and unable to defend the Russian attacks any longer, China dropped further to 23-11. Unwilling to give up, however, the Chinese saved four match points before finally surrendering the bronze medal.