Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament: Puerto Rico Women’s team to compete in May for a place in Beijing

Lausanne, 11 February 2008 – The FIVB has granted Puerto Rico Women’s team the place available in the Olympic World Qualification Tournament to be held in Tokyo from 17 to 25 May. Following the Continental Qualification Tournaments, the final place for this eight-team tournament was to be decided by a Playoff between Peru and Kenya, the teams ranked second in the South American and African Qualifiers, but both teams dropped their applications. Uruguay (third in the World Rankings for South America) wasn’t ready to apply, while Egypt (third in the World Rankings among African countries) has not played in any Continental Qualification Tournaments. In these circumstances, the FIVB has chosen Puerto Rico, the best Norceca team in the World Rankings after Dominican Republic.

Eight teams will compete in Tokyo for the last four places in the Olympic entry list: Japan (host country), Thailand, Korea, Kazakhstan (best-ranked teams in the Asian Continental Championship), Serbia, Poland (best world-ranked team from CEV), Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (best world-ranked teams from Norceca). The tournament also counts as the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament, with the best three teams plus the best Asian team booking their tickets for Beijing.

After a vote during the Board of Administration in 1997, the FIVB has always followed the criteria of maintaining a good balance among the Continents in the Olympic entries, confirmed by a decision of the Board in 2003, taken before the Athens Olympic Games. The respected principle is to support the Continental quota in the Olympic Qualification process and not simply mirror the straight World Ranking list.

Olympic Games 2008 Women's Volleyball
1. China (host country)
2. Italy (1. World Cup)
3. Brazil (2. World Cup)
4. USA (3. World Cup)
5. Algeria (African Qualification Tournament)
6. (Asian Qualification Tournament) *
7. Russia (European Qualification Tournament)
8. Cuba (Norceca Qualification Tournament)
9. Venezuela (South American Qualification Tournament)
10. (World Qualification Tournament)
11. (World Qualification Tournament)
12. (World Qualification Tournament)
* The Asian Continental Qualification Tournaments are played combined with the World Olympic Qualification Tournaments in Japan

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