Iran and Korea complete the podium in San Juan
Credit: volleyballworld.com
France are the new youth champions of the world! In Friday’s final of the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship in San Juan, they outpaced Iran to celebrate with the crown for the first time in the competition. In fact, it was the country’s first volleyball world championship title for any age in either gender. They also had a youth bronze back in 2007.
Iran and Korea completed the podium with silver and bronze, respectively. Iran now single-handedly lead the all-time medal count in the competition with eight podiums: two gold, three silver and three bronze. For Korea, it was the third bronze overall, but the first since 1993.
The French blockers made the big difference towards their team’s 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 25-18, 25-21) victory over Iran in the gold medal match. They raised 18 kill blocks against eight for the opponents.
France also outserved Iran with six aces against five, while the Asians did slightly better in offence with 47 successful spikes against 46, and in precision with 21 unforced errors against 26 from the champions-to-be.
The French players rejoice after the championship point
With middle blocker Joris Seddik setting the tone on the block and captain Mathis Henno putting away three aces, France were well in control throughout the first set. In the second, Iran stepped up their serving, while the French made far too many mistakes helping their opponents break away with a wide lead and level the match. Adrien Roure was the man of the third set. Tallying three points in blocking and another six in attack, he helped France edge forward again. With a total of seven stuffs from their team, the Europeans dominated the fourth set as well. A two-man block by Roure and Jules Duthoit produced the match winner and got the French celebrations started.
Authoring all six of his team’s aces, Mathis Henno added two kill blocks and 10 spiking points to tally a match-high 18 points. Joris Seddik raised eight kill blocks towards a 16-point total, while Adrien Roure finished with 15 points, including four stuffs. Mohammadreza Alejalil was Iran’s leading scorer with 14 points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxmr9BVchmM
“We’re very happy! We fought hard to win this game. It was very difficult, maybe the hardest game of my life, but we did it and we’re champions,” Adrien Roure told Volleyball World. “We played very well in block, we were great in…
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