Italy win volleyball World Cup

Italy defended their World Cup women's volleyball title on Friday as Asian champions China also claimed their ticket to the London Olympics next year. The Italians whipped winless Kenya 25-6, 25-10, 25-17 for a 10-1 win-loss record but had to wait for the outcome of the last match between the United States and Japan. And the Americans crashed to the Japanese 29-27, 25-23, 25-18 for a 9-2 record, surrendering the title to Italy. The Chinese Athens Olympic gold medallists, who have won the World Cup three times before, rallied to a 25-18, 25-18, 25-21 victory over Germany for third place to join the United States and Italy in the Olympics. The Chinese collected 26 points ahead of Japan on 24 points and Brazil on 21 points. "Before the World Cup, we thought that we would not be able to finish among top three to qualify for the Olympics," said Hui Ruoqi, who was the team's joint best scorer with 11 points, the same as Xu Yunli. "Because our team are still young, we couldn't win at the beginning of the year. But our progress to the World Cup was excellent. I'd like to thank those who have supported us." Chinese captain Wei Qiuyue agreed that they had struggled a lot since the beginning of the year. "But we did our best in the World Cup. I think we grew up a lot through this tournament. We are determined to do our best in the Olympic Games as well," said Wei. Chinese coach Yu Juemin said it was an important match which they hope to build on going towards the London Games. "We had to fight against the pressure, because we were vying for the Olympics. We prepared very well for this match, so I had nothing to talk to my players during the match," said Yu. "It was our best match in this tournament. We are going to improve further before the Olympics to cope with the top teams in the world," added Yu. The top three teams in the final standings qualify for the Olympics. The winning teams received three points from 3-0 and 3-1 wins, two from a 3-2 win, while the losing team received one point from a 2-3 defeat. Earlier in the day, Italy powered past winless Kenya 25-6, 25-10, 25-17, while Serbia downed Algeria 25-19, 25-14, 25-18. Beijing Olympic gold medallists Brazil whipped the Dominican Republic 25-21, 25-10, 25-17, and South Korea outclassed Argentina 25-17, 28-26, 25-23.