Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA, October 12 (fivb.ch) - France takes the bronze medal of the 2002 Men's World Championship. The team coached by Philippe Blain defeated Yugoslavia in the match for the third position played at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. The Olympic and European Champion finished fourth after this unexpected loss.
In the beginning of the first set, France took a quick lead to reach the first technical time out 8-3 due to five unforced errors of their rivals. The score leveled reasoned by eight points of Yugoslavian Ivan Miljkovic, but with nine attacks and one ace of Laurent Capet, France got the first set (25-23).
In the second set Yugoslavia kept making mistakes, but with eight points of Ivan Miljkovic the current Olympic Champion could get to the second technical time out 16-13. With the good performance of Laurent Capet (six points), Franz Granvorka (five attacks) and the excellent French block (four points), the French team got the second set.
In the last set, France also reached the first technical time out leading (8-6). The French maintained their supremacy thank to 88% in reception. But Yugoslavian's good defense was an important factor to keep the score equal. France took the lead of the match again thanks to eight points of Laurent Capet. Yugoslavia couldn't revert their errors and finally France ended up winning the match.
For France this result is a big achievement. The French team is one of the upcoming formations and this first ever World Championship medal is the crown on the work of the coaches Philippe Blain and Glenn Hoag
"We are very happy with this result. We played a great match. And most of all, we had an excellent defense," the French libero Hubert Henno, who was one of the most outstanding players on the court, said.
Laurent Capet was the scorer of the match with 23 points, followed by Yugoslavian Ivan Miljkovic (19)
Brazil defeated Russia 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13) on Sunday to win the World Volleyball Championship for the first time in its history.
