Brazil, Serbia-Montenegro move a step closer towards Athens Olympics

OKAYAMA, Japan, Nov 24 (AFP) - World champions Brazil outgunned Canada for a seventh straight win without a loss in the World Cup men's volleyball tournament on Monday, moving a step closer towards the Athens Olympics.

The Brazilians, already having beaten three-time former world champions Italy and European silver medallists France, totally outclassed the Canadians with Giovane Gavio leading their attacks for a 25-13, 25-17, 25-14 win.

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After seven matches each, Brazil and Serbia and Montenegro led the table ahead of Italy and the United States who have a 6-1 win-loss record in the 12-team round robin, vying for the three tickets for the Olympics.

"We had a lot of opportunities in attacking, serving and blocking. We were able to employ tactics successfully today," said Brazilian coach Bernardo Rezende.

"We will be able to win the championship if we keep on playing like this consistently."

Brazil's captain Nalbert Bitencourt, the best scorer with 13 points, said: "Our serve, block and defense were of good quality, which was the key to today's match. We really do not want to lose this in the upcoming matches."

Italy raced to a straightforward 25-16, 25-16, 25-17 win over Egypt.

In Fukuoka, Sydney Olympic champions Serbia and Montenegro defeated Venezuela 25-23, 25-22, 25-18, while the United States kept themselves in contention by beating South Korea 25-20, 25-20, 25-17.

"We wanted to go back to Tokyo with a clean slate, so I believe today's win brought us one step closer to our goal," said Serbian coach Ljubomir Travica.

His player Ivan Miljkovic agreed with Travica, saying: "We won this game three to zero and I think this victory gave us a big chance to go to the Olympics."

Meanwhile, US coach Douglas Beal said: "Since each game becomes more difficult and important as the tournament proceeds, I'm satisfied with the result of today's match.

"Our players concentrated and stayed focused on the match much better than usual today even though we didn't have enough time to prepare for the match."

Korean coach Cha Joo-Hyun said: "Even though we had prepared our formation well for today's match, the Americans' serves were far better and powerful than we had expected.

"Their performance was perfect in terms of both offense and defense. We lacked concentration today."

hf/ppy

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