With the last two matches played last night in Canada, the ranking situation after the two weeks of the Volleyball Nations League is defined. Italy, thanks to its second place behind Poland, has 118.66 points ahead of Cuba, the first team not qualified for the Olympic Games and currently out of the four places still to be assigned. The Azzurri therefore lock their qualification for Paris 2024.
The Azzurri, who returned to Rome this morning after the long trip that began in Brazil and ended in Canada, closes the first two weeks of VNL at the top of the standings with 7 victories and 21 points and will be busy in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from the 19th to June 23 with Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Turkey for Week 3.
Massimo Righi (President of the Serie A Volleyball League): “We had no doubt that the national team would achieve the objective of qualifying for the Paris Olympics, and the fact that this happened several matches in advance only certifies the goodness of the work carried out by the Azzurri and their staff in recent years. These guys are putting on a show in our Championship, making it one of a kind; some of them won the Champions League this year, others the Club World Cup, and they are proving to be a top-class team and group. They will certainly continue to focus on the VNL in the coming days, but we can’t wait to see them in action on the Paris stage.”
Giuseppe Manfredi (President of the Italian Volleyball Federation): “We are really happy to have achieved this qualification which represented the first big objective of the season. At the beginning of the year we knew that the Azzurri were in an excellent position to obtain the Olympic pass, but the boys did very well to close the qualification issue in the first two weeks of play, thanks to some excellent performances.
1. Poland (410.36), 2. Italy (369.30), 3. Japan (348.41), 4. Brazil (342.82), 5. USA (338.77), 6. Slovenia (335.03), 7. France (322.56), 8 Argentina (302.36), 9. Serbia (251.55), 10. Cuba (250.64), 11. Germany (244.45), 12. Canada (244.21), 13. Netherlands (217.38), 14. Ukraine (197.34), 15 . Turkey (197.12), 16. Belgium (180.15), 17. Iran (177.72), 18. Czech Republic (166.76), 19. Egypt (164.05), 20. Bulgaria (163.21).
Volleyball Nations League standings after Week 2
1. Italy 7 v (21), 2. Slovenia 7 v (18), 3. Poland 6 v (18), 4. France 6 v (17), 5. Japan 6 v (16), 6. Brazil 5 v (16), 7. Canada 4 v (13), 8. Cuba 4 v (12), 9. Argentina 4 v (12), 10. Serbia 3 v (10), 11. Germany 3 v (9), 12 . USA 3 v (9), 13. Netherlands 3 v (9), 14. Bulgaria 2 v (5), 15. Turkey 1 v (5), 16. Iran 0 v (2).
