Volleyball…Beijing 2008

Cuba aim for the gold  full article FIVB

Cuba won the NORCECA qualification round and have qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Cuba will enter the Olympic Games for the eighth time after scoring one clear victory in straight sets over Canada (25-19, 25-9, 25-16) in the final encounter of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier.
Winners of the gold medal in Barcelona ’92, Atlanta ’96 and Sidney 2000, the Cubans took the bronze medal in Athens ’04. They also participated in Munich ’72, Montreal ’76 and Moscow ’80.
Veteran Yumilka Ruiz, elected as the Most Valuable Player, had 17 points for Cuba and Kenia Carcaces and Nancy Carrillo each added 11 tallies. Setter Yanelis Santos had 6 of 13 Cuban’s blocks and totalled 9 points.
In the other match on Saturday, Puerto Rico resisted a come-from- behind surge of its rival and beat Dominican Republic in a sensational match for the bronze medal by score of 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 15-25, 22-20.

FIVB release

Players of Canada celebrating with mixed emotions the triumph over Dominican Republic

Monterrey, Mexico, December 22, 2007 - Canada scored a major surprise by blanking Dominican Republic and moving to a match for the gold medal and the Beijing Games’ berth against Cuba at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier. The scores were 27-25, 25-17, 25-19.
It was the first triumph of Canada over the Dominicans in eight years with the last one precisely here in Monterrey in the Norceca’s Continental of 1999.
Earlier, Cuba advanced to the final match with a straight sets victory (25-23, 25-19, 25-12) over Puerto Rico and Mexico defeated Trinidad & Tobago 25-5, 25-23, 25-13 for the fifth place.

Read full article from FIVB

The system of the World Cup requires highly physically fit players specially in the Women’s competition where the player should perform 11 matches in 15 days including the travel days between the Japanese cities, but for the Cuban star Yumika Ruiz no problem with that as she was the most prominent player in the competition to keep her performance steady all through the competition till now.
 Ruiz decided to devote her life to Volleyball. Even her study is also in the sports field as she is making researches in physical education specially in Volleyball field. The strong Cuban wing spiker is single because she wants to concentrate her life on her sports carrier before being involved more in her social life so she is keeping her concentration dedicated to Volleyball.

The World Cup has started and Serbia has opened with a win against Korea. 21,23,15.

Cuba took down Kenya 11,18,20. Full results and photos courtesy FIVB.