2006 World Championships
Estonia men aiming to follow in the footsteps of Serbia and Montenegro women (FIVB)
07/13/2005
Rzeszow,
Poland, July 13, 2005 – When the 2006 Men’s World
Championship third round tournament – Europe Pool L
starts on Friday in Rzeszow, Poland, the Estonia men’s
team, ranked 49th in the world, will be aiming to
replicate the outstanding feat achieved by the Serbia
and Montenegro women’s side by reaching the finals after
starting the tournament in the first round.
Serbia and Montenegro, who are ranked 28th in the world,
stormed through three successive tournaments to reach
the 2006 Women’s World Championship Final Round in Japan
next year and Estonia are on the verge of doing the same
in the men’s draw when they play hosts Poland (ranked
eight in the world), Russia (4th) and Bulgaria (16th) in
the three day tournament. Pic: Home advantage for Poland will be huge Having won their first round tournament on home soil
in May, Estonia finished second behind Portugal in a
second round tournament later that month to set up a
third round date this weekend.
However, it definitely won’t be an easy task with Poland,
who traditionally have incredible home support, and
Bulgaria having just finished fourth and fifth in the
2005 World League respectively, while Russia are the
2002 World Championship silver medalists.
Bulgaria advanced to Poland by winning a second round
tournament at home in May, while Russia and Poland have
been automatically seeded into this third round
tournament.
Pool L is the first of four European third round
tournaments being played this month and since Europe has
nine vacancies in the final round in Japan, the top two
sides from each tournament will claim final round
tickets. The third placed side in each tournament will
enter a four-way play-off for one remaining ticket.
The first match in Poland between Estonia and Poland
starts at 19:00 local time (17:00 GMT) followed by
Bulgaria playing Russia at 21:00 (19:00 GMT).
