Dubai: Russia’s self-belief went a long way in ensuring their success in the second edition of the FIVB Men’s U23 World Championship, which concluded at the Al Nasr Club’s indoor hall late on Monday.
“We missed some players during this competition, but we always believed in ourselves. There were several difficulties while preparing for this championship, but they only toughened us up and we came and proved that here,” Russian coach Mikhail Nikolaev said after they secured a 3-1 (26-24, 16-25, 25-18, 26-24) win against Turkey for their first-ever world crown, displacing Brazil, as world champions.
Leading the Russian onslaught was attacker Igor Kaliuka, who walked away with the dual honour of best outside spiker and ‘Most Valuable Player’ in only the second edition of this age group competition.
Russia had come into this competition as the overwhelming favourites along with defending champions Brazil, who limped off with a consolation fifth place after avenging their preliminary round loss to Argentina earlier on Monday.
Russia went through their Pool B engagements with a clean slate with wins against Tunisia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Turkey to advance against Italy in the semi-finals. And in Monday’s final, there was no way anyone at the Al Nasr indoor hall could have seen beyond Russia as they fought off every bit of resistance put up by Turkey.
MVP Kaliuka’s 20 points topped the list of scores for the new champions, followed by Pavel Pankov’s 10 points, including two key blocks to close out the intense action, while Metin Toy matched this effort for Turkey with 20 points and Gokhan Gokgoz contributed 16.
Russia had played a three-match friendly series against Turkey during their build-up to this competition. Though the ultimate world champions went down 1-2 in the friendlies, they more than made amends in Dubai as they defeated Turkey on both occasions – a close 3-2 result in their crucial Pool B preliminary round and in the final on Monday. “We knew how they [Turkey] played, and that made things a bit easier for us. But the main point of difference was that we believed we could win here,” Nikolaev said.
Turkey’s Italian coach Emanuele Zanini, who plotted the team’s surprise surge in this competition, admitted that Russia were deserving champions. “I think we were really close to Russia, but they had something more special in their physical presence and that made all the difference in the end,” Zanini said.
“We were really close. The difference between both teams was two points in the end. We needed a little something extra. Perhaps our players were a bit nervous as this is a final and this is the first time that they have played in a final at this level. All the same this is a historic silver medal that is going to be very important for Turkish volleyball,” he added.