FRA	3	25	25	24	25	-	99
CHN	1	16	14	26	19	-	75

Match Description:

France keep slight Olympic hopes alive
France kept alive their slight chance of finishing in the top three of the 2003 Men's World Cup by completing an awkward four set victory over a hot and cold Chinese side in the last match in Okayama on Monday.

With the World Championship bronze medalists still holding a mathematical chance of claiming an Olympic qualification berth with three wins so far in the tournament they need every win they can get and although France are ahead of China on the overall standings, the Asian vice-champions, who have put in some brave performances but only collected one win to date, posed as a possible hurdle.

In an even beginning both sides checked each other out. Just like a boxing match, neither side gave anything away until the first timeout of the match, with China leading 8-7. France came out after the breaking with renewed vigor and with Frantz Granvorka in typically aggressive mood France moved ahead 16-14 and another Granvorka special gave France a 22-15 lead. It wasn't long after that France had wrapped up the set 25-16 after China's Jiong Hi was called for a held ball.

Things looked to be getting worse for China when, down 3-2, their captain Hairong Shi limped off favouring his left leg. To rub salt in the wound the French block, with Jean-Charles Monneraye at the helm, was in top gear to give the TriColours an early edge and with captain Dominique Daquin unleashing some monster spikes and blocks from the middle block position, it was he who deservedly smashed home the winner to finish the second set.

The third set was a different affair however, with the China one has got to know at the this tournament, showing their true potential by keeping pace throughout the set before Antiga spiked into the net to give China the set.

China continued their resurgence in the fourth set until some power spiking from Philippe Barca-Cysique gave France the advantage at 17-15. The French block started working again, led by Daquin, and France were home for their fourth win of the World Cup.

Comments:

BLAIN, Philippe (FRA, Head Coach)
This is the first time I have seen our team unite to fight so well. The players concentrated well, and the match was very interesting. However, it was getting hard for us from the second set. In the last set we regained our rhythm. Tomorrow we want to play against CAN like today.

DOMINIQUE, Daquin (FRA, Captain)
We played our own style of volleyball today. It was a good match. CHN also fulfilled their potential, so I'd like to congratulate them. We should maintain concentration in the remaining matches.

DI, Anhe (CHN, Head Coach)
Our team fought hard against FRA and played very well in this match. However, FRA took advantage with powerful serving, which messed up our reception. In the first two sets we were nervous and failed to show our ability. In the last two sets our performance improved.

TANG, Miao (CHN, Player)
We all watched the match of FRA yesterday. We expected to compete with FRA, but we hesitated a little bit during this match. That led us to this result, I suppose.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF