OSAKA (Dispatches) – A cutthroat meet sees Iran beat France to get the country its first FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Grand Champions Cup medal.
The 3-2 clash (38-36, 25-23, 22-25, 25-27, 15-11) took place at Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium on Sunday, landing Iran in the tournament’s third place.
Amir Ghafour topped the scorers with 24 points. Four other Iranian players also scored in double digits: Seyyed Mohammed Moussavi, 20, Mohammad-Javad Ma’navi-Nezhad, 19, and Milad Ebadipour and Saman Fa’ezi, who each scored 12.
Iran coach Igor Kolakovic said, "It was a very interesting and high-quality volleyball game. I’m so happy because we finished with a victory. After the game between USA and Italy, we knew we already had the bronze medal, so I asked the players if they wanted to play or not. They told me they wanted to play to win because they wanted to finish the tournament with a victory. So that makes me happy.”
On Saturday, Iran came back from behind against Japan to win the game 3-1. Ghafour again was the leading scorer for Iran with 23 points.
The 2017 tournament is the seventh edition of the quadrennial games, which is organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). Iran ranked fourth in the last edition.
The games featured six teams, which had been playing each other since September 12.
On Sunday, Brazil was playing Japan for the first place.
Iranian national volleyball team's head coach Igor Kolakovic says that to win the first medal on the world stage is very important for Iran.
"It was a very interesting and high-quality volleyball game. I’m so happy because we finished with a victory," Kolakovic told fivb.org.
"After the game between the USA and Italy, we knew we already had the bronze medal, so I asked the players if they wanted to play or not. They told me they wanted to play to win because they wanted to finish the tournament with a victory. So that makes me happy,” Kolakovic noted.
"We’ve had a lot of problems with injury and not much time for recovery. But we finished the year in the best way, for Iran and the Iranian people. This is very important because the people have supported the Iranian team and they deserve this medal as much as the players,” he added.
"This first medal for Iran is very important, so this tournament win was important for Iranian volleyball. And it provides us with extra motivation for next season and for our young players,” Kolakovic stated.