Here comes the FIVB Women's World Olympic Qualification Tournament

The next big international Olympic qualifying tournament takes place in mid-May, in Japan....again!

Its the FIVB Women's World Olympic Qualification Tournament from May 17-25, 2008.

With as many international world class tournaments that have been played in japan this year it shouldn't take their team very long to break through to become a top three contending world power again.

The tournament venue is the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

Hosts Japan are joined by Thailand, Korea, Kazakhstan (best-ranked teams at the Asian Continental Championship), Serbia, Poland (best world-ranked teams from CEV), Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (best world-ranked teams from NORCECA) in the Tokyo tournament.

The round-robin competition doubles up as the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament and so the best three teams plus the best Asian team (even if any of the best three teams are Asian) will book the final four tickets for the Beijing Olympic Games Women's Volleyball Tournament. .. yes this is a very important tournament which will determine the last remaining teams to quality into the Olympics.

Japan

Thailand

Korea

Kazakhstan

Serbia

Poland

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

Match schedule

* All times are local

Saturday, May 17

Thailand vs. Dominican Republic (11:05)

Korea vs. Puerto Rico (13:05)

Serbia vs. Kazakhstan (15:05)

Poland vs. Japan (18:00)

Sunday, May 18 Dominican Republic vs. Serbia (11:05) Korea vs. Thailand (13:05) Kazakhstan vs. Poland (15:05) Puerto Rico vs. Japan (18:00)

Monday, May 19 – Rest Day

Tuesday, May 20

Thailand vs. Puerto Rico (11:35)

Serbia vs. Korea (13:35)

Poland vs. Dominican Republic (15:35)

Japan vs. Kazakhstan (18:30)

Wednesday, May 21

Thailand vs. Serbia (11:35)

Puerto Rico vs. Kazakhstan (13:35)

Korea vs. Poland (15:35)

Dominican Republic vs. Japan (18:30)

Thursday, May 22 – Rest Day

Friday, May 23

Kazakhstan vs. Dominican Republic (11:35)

Serbia vs. Puerto Rico (13:35)

Poland vs. Thailand (15:35)

Japan vs. Korea (18:30)

Saturday, May 24 Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic (11:05)

Serbia vs. Poland (13:05)

Korea vs. Kazakhstan (15:05)

Thailand vs. Japan (18:00)

Sunday, May 25

Dominican Republic vs. Korea (11:05)

Kazakhstan vs. Thailand (13:05)

Poland vs. Puerto Rico (15:05)

Japan vs. Serbia (18:00)

Italy, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela have already booked their tickets to Beijing through the FIVB 2007 World Cup or Continental Qualification Tournaments, while China have qualified as the host country.

Tokyo has hosted many prestigious FIVB events over the years, and the first Olympic Volleyball tournaments took place in Japan's capital city during the 1964 Summer Games.

Remember the ball is in your court. Are you ">too small to play volleyball?

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com

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