Roundup: Canada, Argentina survive, ROC advances in Tokyo 2020 men's volleyball

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, July 28, 2021
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TOKYO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Canada and Argentina sustained their hopes to advance, while the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team secured an early ticket to the quarterfinals here on Wednesday after the third round of Tokyo 2020 men's volleyball preliminaries.

Recovering from two straight losses to Italy and Japan, Canada celebrated their first win at this Games after beating Iran 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-22).

Iran has upset world No. 2 Poland and overcome Venezuela in previous matches in Pool A, but failed to book an early ticket to the Games' quarterfinals.

John Gordon Perrin grabbed a game-high 16 points and Nicholas Hoag added 15. On the Iran side, Amir Ghafour donated his team's best 13 points.

"I feel like what we've given isn't exactly what we've gotten back in our standing. So, we're trying to fight back and still make it into the middle rounds, but I think everyone on our team still believes that we're going to be there at the end," said Perrin, the Canadian team captain.

Other matches in Pool A saw South Korea thrash Kenya 3-0 and Italy defeat Japan 3-1.

Argentina in Pool B also found their hopes in danger of entering the quarterfinals, at least before clinching the first victory over France with 3-2 (23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-25, 15-13).

France's Trevor Clevenot and Jean Patry combined for 46 points, but that was still not enough to stop Argentina with four players scoring double digits.

"We lost a once-in-a-lifetime chance against Brazil and it was so important to transform that loss into a big statement today," said Argentina's spiker Facundo Conte.

"After Brazil, I couldn't sleep. Today the main word is happiness. Emotionally and mentally we are back," he added.

Brazil, surviving in a five-set thriller against Argentina, was dragged down by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team 3-0 on Wednesday.

The ROC side is now the only team standing unbeaten, which means they've booked the ticket to the quarterfinals with two rounds remaining.

Elsewhere in Pool B, the United States beat Tunisia 3-1. Enditem

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