2006 World Championships
Kazakhstan surprise Korea to claim final round spot (FIVB)
06/19/2005
Almaty,
Kazakhstan, June 19, 2005 – Kazakhstan, ranked 31st in
the world, pulled off a sensational upset by beating
Korea, who have a world ranking of 10, 3-1 (25-21,
25-20, 17-25, 33-31) on Sunday to claim the one final
round ticket on offer at the 2006 Men’s World
Championship second round tournament – Asia Pool D.
Korea will now head into a three-way playoff with the
second-placed teams from the two other Asian second
round tournaments in India in July.
Chinese Taipei beat United Arab Emirates 3-0 (25-18,
25-23, 25-19) in the earlier match on Sunday. Pic: Kazakhstan celebrate a incredible victory
Even considering they had home advantage, it was an
impressive performance from Kazakhstan who went through
the tournament unbeaten and only lost one set, the one
to Korea.
Korea, who were hot favourites to win the tournament,
finished the tournament with a 2-1 record while Chinese
Taipei finished third (1-2) and United Arab Emirates did
not win a match.
While Korea heads to Chennai, India for the final round
playoff from July 1-3, Kazakhstan will now have more
than 15 months to prepare for the big finale, the 2006
World Championships final round in Japan, which starts
in November, 2006.
It will be Kazakhstan’s second appearance in the World
Championships final round after they finished 19th in
2002.
Kazakhstan’s victory brings the number of teams
confirmed in the final round to five with defending
champions Brazil and hosts Japan already automatically
booked in the final round while Egypt and Argentina
advanced from their respective pools in Africa and South
America.
