Together with host China, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Poland and the Netherlands have been qualified for the women's volleyball Grand Prix final round slated in Ningbo, China from August 22-26.

 

The 2007 Grand Prix lasts four weeks with a total of 65 matches. The top five teams, after three weeks of preliminaries, will play with China in a round robin system in Ningbo to decide the Grand Prix champion.

 

The third week's play (August 17-19) continued to see a different Poland: The shy team, which lost all three matches in its home debut two weeks before, was fully fired-up in the remaining two rounds under some magic build-up from Marco Bonitta, the former head coach of Italy.

 

After three match winning streak in Hong Kong, China, during August 10-12, the European champions repeated the feat in the last round in Japan and qualified for the bonanza event for the first time ever.

 

It was a bitter pill for Russia to lose 3-0 to Poland, but the seven wins against two losses were good enough to send Russia to Ningbo after finishing third on the general rankings.

 

But the three-time champions need to keep up their guard as they also risked a lot against Kazakhstan in the Japan leg in Osaka, winning just at the end of the tie-break.

 

At the Chinese Taipei leg, despite a typhoon hitting the area, the matches were regularly played. Italy beat leaders Brazil on Sunday and they both advanced. Italy now finishes second on the rankings behind Brazil.

 

In Macao, the Netherlands got all things under control after winning three games in a row, especially beating the US 3-1 on Sunday. They also beat China and Cuba at this leg.

 

While the US missed the finals for the third consecutive year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2007)