2006 Women’s World Championship - Guatemala
Mexico and Guatemala confirm their superiority (FIVB)
05/12/2005
Guatemala City, Guatemala, May 12, 2005 – Mexico and Guatemala both confirmed their title as favourites at the 2006 Women’s World Championship first round tournament - Norceca Pool C after both sides collected convincing victories on the opening day at the Dome of Guatemala on Wednesday, with Mexico strolling to a straight sets win 25-19, 25-10, 25-21 over Nicaragua in the first match followed by the hosts Guatemala comfortably beating Honduras 25-18, 25-9, 25-18. Panama had the bye.

With the first two teams in this tournament advancing to the second round, both Mexico, the only team to have an official world ranking at 28, and Guatemala proved they will be tough to beat.

In the opening match, Mexico were far superior in the blocking department relying on their bigger size and experience at the centre of the net.

The tall Bibi Candelas (1.96m) was Mexico’s top scorer with 26 points, followed by Claudia Rodriguez and Migdalel Ruiz with 12 and 10 respectively. Heidy Trana with 10 and Heidy Rostran with 8 were the best for Nicaragua.
Pic: Caterine Leiva from Honduras tries to beat the block of Guatemala's Diana Arias (No 7)
Marcos Heredia, the coach of Mexico, reiterated that “there are no favourites in these short tournaments. Today Nicaragua wanted to win and they really hurt us in the third set with their serves.”

Rene Quintana, the coach of Nicaragua, said: “We played against the monster of the tournament and for us the competition starts tomorrow. We have to work hard the rest of the way in order to achieve our goal of reaching the second round.”

Candelas, the captain of Mexico, praised the quality of the match and said that “both teams gave their best and Nicaragua played a good third set, but her side managed to adjust and close out the victory.”

Mireyines Tellez, the captain of Nicaragua, recognized the superiority of Mexico. “They play at a higher level, but I think despite our weakness we did our best and played well.”

Day two of the 2006 Women’s World Championship first round tournament - Norceca Pool C sees Panama make their debut playing Honduras at 18:00 (local time) followed by Nicaragua taking on Guatemala at 20:00 (local time). Mexico has the bye.

This week also sees two tournaments feature in the 2006 Men’s World Championship with a first round event (Europe Pool D) in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary featuring the home side, Slovenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and a second round event (Europe Pool E) in Varna, Bulgaria, where the hosts, Turkey and the Slovak Republic will play for a chance to advance to the third round. Both tournaments start on Friday.
(Released by FIVB)