By Rohith Nair
PARIS (Reuters) -Poland beat Slovenia in men’s volleyball on Monday to finally cross the quarter-final hurdle having been eliminated in the last-eight at every Olympics since 2004, while hosts France mounted a sensational comeback to beat Germany.
Gold medallists in 1976 and semi-finalists in 1980, Poland had failed to reach the medal rounds for 44 years. They had also fallen in the quarter-finals in Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo but are now the number one ranked team in the world.
Led by last year’s EuroVolley MVP Wilfredo Leon’s 20 points (14 kills) and opposite spiker Bartosz Kurek’s 19, Poland’s players got emotional after their 25-20 24-26 25-19 25-20 victory over Slovenia.
“I think the tears described it best. I know how difficult it is after playing great volleyball in the group stage to keep it (going) in the quarter-finals,” middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski said.
“Every Polish national team in volleyball in previous Olympic Games were playing great volleyball in the pool stages and, as the favourite in the quarter-final, it’s very difficult to keep it.
“Maybe that was the spell (to break), to not play the greatest volleyball in the group stage, but being mentally tough and showing the best volleyball from the quarter-final.”
Poland finished second in Pool B behind Italy, who had a perfect record with three wins to top the group.
Roared on by a loud crowd, Poland’s players sank to the floor when a Slovenian spike went long on match point. They also had Iga Swiatek in attendance and the delighted tennis number one celebrated the victory with the players on court.
“It is really difficult to keep the mental toughness and energy throughout the whole game, it doesn’t matter if it’s three sets, four sets, or five sets,” Kochanowski added.
“We had situations today that could end up in a different way, but it didn’t thanks to the crowd. They did a hell of a job.”
Poland will next play the United States, who later beat Brazil 26-24 28-30 25-19 25-19 in the last quarter-final on the back of 20 points from Matthew Anderson and 16 from TJ DeFalco.
FRANCE FIGHT BACK
Defending champions France found themselves 2-0 down against Germany but, roared on by the home support at the South Paris Arena 1, fought back to progress to the semi-finals with an enthralling 18-25 26-28 25-20 25-21 15-13 victory.
Five Germans hit double figures for points but France’s Earvin Ngapeth (21 points) and Trevor Clevenot (20) stood tall to carry the hosts into the semi-finals where they will face Italy.
The quarter-final between Italy and Japan also went the distance as the European side made a thrilling comeback from two sets down to win 3-2.
Japan had match points but it was Italy who kept their cool under pressure to come out on top with a 20-25 23-25 27-25 26-24 17-15 victory, led by 6-foot 9-inch outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto’s 24 points, which included 22 kills.
“It was distressing. They are an incredible team,” Simone Giannelli said.
“I said it before the Olympic Games, whoever meets Japan will be fatigued. We met them and I knew it would be a match like this.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)
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