Agencies/Belo Horizonte, Brazil


European champions Belogorie Belgorod from Russia emerged as the world’s best team after defeating Qatar’s Al-Rayyan in the gold medal match of the FIVB Men’s Club World Championship on Saturday. The Russian side won 3-1 (16-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-15).
Belgorod had two key players to thank for the win: Gyorgy Grozer and Dmitriy Muserskiy both scored 18 points for the new world champions, who outlasted Rayyan on both attacking and blocking. Michael Sanchez Bozhulev led Qatar’s challenge with 15 tallies.
Rayyan achieved the first set with an amazing display. Sanchez hammered the first two points of the game and, from then, the Asian team quickly moved on to 9-1 with Robertlandy Simon at the service line. Sanchez and Simon repeated until 14-5, and even though Dragan Travica converted an ace (14-7), Matey Kaziyski emerged to conduct his side to 18-9. Both Cuban players blocked together at 21-11 and Rayyan cruised to the end. A wrong Russian serve wrapped up the chapter by 25-16.
Belgorod fought back in the second set, showing the features that made them European champions. After scores of 8-6 and 10-6, Simon served well to reduce the score (12-10), but the Russians bounced back to 16-13.
Muserskiy did some great damage with his serves, making things very difficult in attack for Rayyan to help his side take a 21-15 lead. Belgorod pulled out stunning blocks in the final part and captain Taras Khtey smashed well to take the set 25-21.

“This is a historical achievement for Qatar’s volleyball and also for the entire region. Today we lost against a much better team; Belogorie were just too good for us”

The third set showed two leveled teams, with Belgorod slightly ahead at the first TTO (8-7). However, nothing changed right after the break, as the tie persisted to 11-11. Belgorod managed to create a break at 15-12 with a low momentum from Rayyan, and Travica served right over the sideline to increase the damage (16-12). Grozer overcame Rayyan’s block to score the 21-16 and led the way to 24-18, and Muserskiy landed a soft touch for the 25-21 win.
Taking advantage of some Rayyan errors, Belgorod jumoed to a 9-5 lead in the final set. Grozer enhanced his personal score, providing the European champions a huge gap at 15-9.
Rayyan tried their best, but had no weapons for the comeback. Muserskiy seized his height and easily blocked at 17-10, Grozer smashed some very sharp spikes and Belgorod arrived to the final track with a comfortable lead (20-12). The gold medal point was achieved by a wrong serve (25-15).
Gennady Shipulin, Belgorod coach, was ecstatic after the win. “We are a great team,” he said. “We are a family. We wanted to win this title, I myself wanted it very much. We all played an amazing game today, all the team gave everything for this.”
Despite the defeat, Rayyan coach Igor Arbutina was also happy. “This is a historical achievement for Qatar’s volleyball and also for the entire region,” he said. “Today we lost against a much better team; Belogorie were just too good for us. They’re the strongest team in the world now.”
Earlier, UPCN won the bronze medal match over home team Sada Cruzeiro. In their third five-setter of the tournament, the Argentinean side prevailed 3-2 (25-17, 31-29, 23-25, 16-25, 15-13).