USA to face China in gold medal match

The gold medal match in the women’s competition at the 2014 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Championships in Elblag, Poland, will be a repeat of the London 2012 final after both China and USA won their respective semi-finals on Friday (20 June).

In the first semi-final of the day USA faced the Netherlands. The first set was a close affair which the Paralympic silver medallists edged 26:24. USA then upped their game and took the next two sets 25:15 and 25:13 to secure a straight sets win.

“I’m excited before the final match, nervous but excited. I think we have a really big chance. We have a really good team. The competition in Rio – I think it will be really top, all teams play from their heart and have showed their best and it will be really good competition," the USA’s Nichole Millage said.

The second semi-final was an absolute thriller with China holding off a terrific comeback from Russia to win a five set thriller.

The Paralympic champions started confidently winning the first two sets 25:12 and 25:16. Facing a straight sets loss, Russia found their form and won the next two sets 25:16 and 25:20 to level the contest.

In the final set, China showed their class to close out the match 15:11.

The men’s semi-finals saw a major upset with Rio 2016 hosts Brazil defeating five-time Paralympic champions Iran in five sets.

Brazil started the game strongly winning the first two sets 25:19 and 25:20, before Iran responded to take the game to a final set.

With tensions running high, Brazil regained the form that had won them the first two sets and took the decider 15:12.

In Saturday’s final (21 June), they will face Paralympic champions Bosnia and Herzegovina who they lost to in the Pool round earlier in the week.

The pre-tournament favourites beat Egypt in straight sets 25:11, 25:23, 25:23 and will now look to add the world title to the gold medal they won at London 2012.