Athens Olympics 2004
Submitted by David Martin on May 30, 2004 - 5:27pm.
Despite losing their last match to Iran, the Volleyball Team Australian Men have qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics. They did it by the smallest of margins though, edging out China on the ladder by no more than 10 points over the seven qualifying tournament matches - the teams were equal on both match wins and total sets won and lost.
Submitted by David Martin on May 27, 2004 - 5:00pm.
The Volleyball Team Australia Men have won three of their first four matches at the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Japan this week.
Submitted by David Martin on March 4, 2004 - 12:00am.
The teams for Volleyball at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens will be finalised in May during a series of Olympic Qualifying tournaments. The Australian men will play in Japan (May 22-30) against the hosts Japan, Algeria, Canada, France, Korea, China and Iran for one of only two Olympic spots available - one for the winner and the second to the best Asian team. The Australian women though are already out of Olympic contention as they struggle to move back up to a top-25 world ranking. As of January 2004, the Australian men's indoor team are ranked 21 (with 21.25 points) in the world. On top of the men's world rankings are Brazil (277.0 points) and Italy (226.5 points) after their first and second placings respectively at the 2003 World Cup. The Australian women have fallen a couple of spots to 27 (7.5 points). Heading the women's world rankings are China (257.0 points), USA (236.0 points) and Brazil (191.5 points), all of whom have already qualified for the Athens Games.
