Netherlands, Italy, Korea and Japan book Rio tickets

Tokyo, Japan, May 21, 2016 - The four teams to earn tickets for this year’s Olympic Games have all been decided on a dramatic penultimate day at the Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan.

Host nation Japan, fellow Asian team Korea, and European teams Italy and Netherlands all secured their berths for Rio, despite both Japan and Korea losing five-set contests on Saturday.

Italy will go to it’s fifth consecutive Olympics after beating Japan 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 27-25, 21-25, 15-9), while Japan will go to a record-equalling 12th Olympics on the strength of the single point it picks up for winning two sets.

The Netherlands is off to its first Olympics in 20 years after beating Peru 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-17), while at the same time ending the Rio hopes of the young South Americans.

The Dutch came into the tournament as one of the favourites, and despite occasional hiccups, showed they will be competitive in Brazil.

The women have not been to an Olympics since 1996. Captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues was eight at the time, but only remembers watching the Dutch men win gold.

Earlier, Thailand staged a dramatic comeback to keep its hopes of a first ever Olympics alive, while Korea confirmed as the first team in Japan to qualify for Rio after a dramatic 3-2 (19-25, 22-25, 29-27, 26-24, 15-12) win for Thailand.

The win gave Thailand two points and moved it to nine, at the time two points behind Japan, while Korea was safe on 13 points. It will be Korea’s 11th Olympic Games.

But Thailand was once again left one position short after Japan secured it’s point against Italy.

Not for the first time this week Thai fans were kept on the edge of their seats for more than two hours, while their team slipped and slided but, ultimately, held its nerve to post a memorable win.

A world-class performance by Libero Brenda Castillo helped Dominican Republic to a 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-12, 25-20) win over Kazakhstan, its first win of the tournament.

Castillo took control of the match in the final set to guide her team to victory in the battle of two winless teams looking for positives to take away from the qualification tournament.

With not much more to play for than pride and maybe a chance to blood some younger players with an eye to Tokyo 2020 it had the potential to be a dour affair.

What eventuated was two teams desperate not to finish at the bottom of the eight-team table.

Top Scorer by Day

26 - Yeon-Koung Kim of Korea v Italy on May 14

22 - Angela Leyva of Peru v Dominican Republic on May 15

30 – Angela Leyva of Peru v Kazakhstan on May 17

24 – Saori Sakoda of Japan v Thailand on May 18

23 – Angela Leyva of Peru v Korea on May 20

34 – Kim Yeon-Koung of Korea v Thailand on May 21

 

Top Scoring Performances

34 – Kim Yeon-Koung of Korea v Thailand on May 21

31 – Saori Kimura of Japan v Italy on May 21

30 – Angela Leyva of Peru v Kazakhstan on May 17

26 - Yeon-Koung Kim of Korea v Italy on May 14

24 – Saori Sakoda of Japan v Thailand on May 18

 

Top Individual Serving Performances

5 – Kim Hee-Jin of Korea v Japan on May 17

4 – Cristina Chirichella of Italy v Peru on May 18

 

Top Team Serving Performances

11 – Korea v the Netherlands on May 15

9 – Korea v Japan on May 17

9 – Korea v Kazakhstan on May 18

8 – The Netherlands v Kazakhstan on May 14

8 – Italy v Thailand on May 15

 

Top Individual Blocking Performances

9 – Cristina Chirichella of Italy v Japan on May 21

8 – Yang Hyo-Jin of Korea v Peru on May 20

8 – Kristina Anikonova of Kazakhstan v Peru on May 17

5 - Hyo-Jin Yang of Korea v Italy on May 14

5 – Yvon Belien of Netherlands v Thailand on May 17

5 – Nuekjang Thatdao of Thailand v Japan on May 18, 2016

5 – Thinkaow Pleumjit of Thailand v Japan on Mauy 18, 2016

 

Top Team Blocking Performances

21 – Italy v Japan on May 21

16 – Korea v Peru on May 20

16 – Kazakhstan v Peru on May 17

15 – Thailand v Japan on May 18

15 – Italy v Peru on May 18

 

Highest Scoring Sets

29-27 – Korea v the Netherlands (1st set) on May 15

29-27 – Thailand v Korea (3rd set) on May 21

26-28 Thailand v Dominican Republic (2nd set) on May 14

28-26 Korea v Japan (1st set) on May 17 

 

Highest Scoring Matches

224 – Thailand v Korea 3-2 (19-25, 22-25, 29-27, 26-24, 15-12) on May 21

222 – Italy v Japan 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 27-25, 21-25, 15-9) on May 21

217 – Japan v Thailand 3-2 (20-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13)

190 - Thailand d Dominican Republic 3-1 (26-24, 26-28, 25-16, 25-20) on May 14