The fight for a place in the Olympic Games in Rio begins for the women's volleyball teams
The women's volleyball teams from Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile will begin their fight for a place in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the city of Bariloche tomorrow.
The Pre-Olympic tournament will end on January 10 and the champion team will be the fourth team guaranteed in Rio de Janeiro, as Brazil, China, and Serbia already have their places as the host country and champions and runners-up of the Copa Mundial played in Japan in August.
Colombia and Venezuela will open the women's Pre-Olympic tournament this Wednesday, followed by the matches between Argentina and Chile. Peru, who will have a rest day, will make their debut against Chile on Thursday.
"There are no more important rivals than others. We have to finish first, and for that we have to win all the matches in the best possible way," said Argentina's coach, Guillermo Orduna.
He highlighted that the teams from Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru have prepared well to qualify for the Olympics, while he valued the Chilean team as "a younger and somewhat more inexperienced team."
Argentina and Chile played a friendly match last Sunday, in which the home team won with partial scores of 25-13, 25-9, and 25-10.
"We are aware of the place we occupy in South America. We have an intact illusion of making a great Pre-Olympic tournament. We know that we are not a candidate team, but we can surprise," said Hugo Jáuregui, the coach of Chile.
Peru lost to the Brazilian team from Rio do Sul in a friendly match with scores of 24-26, 18-25, and 28-30.
Peru's Brazilian coach, Mauro Marasciulo, will not be able to count on libero Vanessa 'Choco' Palacios, one of his stars, for this tournament, as she suffered an Achilles tendon rupture.
Colombian women, coached by Argentine Eduardo Guillaume, are seeking to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time, and for that, they have completed intense preparations in Mexico with victories over the host country and the Dominican Republic."We have a team that has been working at a high level for four years. It is a group that has been growing and has achieved a good level. We hope that we can demonstrate that in the Pre-Olympic tournament and obtain important results to qualify the team," said Guillaume.
Venezuela's coach, Iván Nieto, said that the possibilities of qualification "will revolve around the first match against Colombia." According to him, "that match will determine the entire competition."