It’s like going to Disneyland!
Are you feeling the excitement? Are ya? Are ya? Cause I gotta tell ya, I'm sure not.
The FIVB World Congress takes place every two years. It's the meeting where they decide any rule changes or directives, and…talk about a lot of stuff. Today is 'workshop' day. As the graphic indicates, the main conference begins tomorrow. There's one item on the agenda that I guess is of real importance, and that's the election of a new FIVB President. But, really…do you have any idea who the FIVB President is now? He's an old Chinese man. And he'll be replaced by a slightly less old man, either from America, Brazil, or Australia.
The conference is streamed live online, and it's in my timezone, so I guess I should watch it, but…boy, I'm not feeling the enthusiasm for it. I about fell asleep just reading the agenda for 'workshop' day. The main topic of the day looks to be stimulating national federations in less developed countries. And that's a worthwhile goal, but does listening to people talk about it for seven hours sound like something fans really need to tune into?
So you'll excuse me if I'm a little light on coverage of this conference. I truly don't see anything of great consequence going on.
Since that was such a pathetically short post, and there's not a ton on this next topic either, I decided to combine 'em.
The AVC Cup in Kazakhstan ended on Sunday. This women's indoor tournament involved teams from Asia (AVC being the Asian federation) filling the final two spots for the 2013 World Grand Prix, which is the equivalent tournament on the women's side to the World League for the men. The top two teams, excluding China if they were one of the top two since they've already qualified by other means, make it to the World Grand Prix. This effectively meant it would be two of the top three, since China is easily the strongest team in the region.
Capping off a remarkable tournament, the team from Thailand won the final match over China in a 4-set upset (30-28, 25-27, 25-21, 25-20). The bronze medal final therefore decided the other Grand Prix berth (nice how the second berth then went to a team that won their final match, rather than one that lost). The host Kazakhs defeated Vietnam fairly comfortably (25-18, 25-20, 25-16) to earn the last slot. That gives us the following teams for 2013 (one African qualifier remains to be determined):
1. United States (2012 champions)
2. Brazil (2012 runners-up)
3. Thailand (fourth-place finishers in 2012)
4. China
5. Cuba
6. Poland
7. Japan
8. Serbia
9. Dominican Republic
10. Puerto Rico
11. Argentina
12. Czech Republic
13. Bulgaria
14. Netherlands
15. Kazakhstan
16. TBA
Bulgaria and Czech Republic are playing in the tournament for the first time. Regrettably, several strong nations are missing, such as two-time defending world champions Russia and 2012 World Grand Prix bronze medalists Turkey, but it should still be an exciting tournament. It's set for the month of August (all month) next year.
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