Cuba beat Russia to play Poland for U21 World Championship gold

Cuba and Poland showed some great volleyball in their semifinal matches to defeat Russia and Brazil, respectively, and to set up a second encounter with each other in Brno, this time in a duel for the gold medals.

Cuba delivered a major upset by defeating title-contenders Russia in the first semifinal. Miguel David Gutierrez once again proved to be the big leader in the Caribbean squad with a fantastic all-around performance on the way to the 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 16-25, 25-23) victory. He was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, including four aces and two kill blocks.

Poland’s inspirational captain and middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski once again showed a strong performance on the court to lead the incredible team effort that lifted the squad to the big final of the U21 World Championship. Also inspired by the relentless support from a large group of Polish fans on the stands, the European team mastered a 3-2 (25-21, 25-19, 21-25, 23-25, 15-12) victory over Brazil. Kochanowski became the best scorer of the match with 21 points.

Two exciting five-set matches, filled with drama, determined fifth place and seventh place match-ups. Having won the tie-breakers, Iran and China will lock horns for the fifth place, while Argentina and Canada will have to settle for the seventh place game.

Iran played in the first classification playoff for the fifth place and, hardly to anyone’s surprise, it went over five sets. This was the sixth consecutive five-setter for the Iranian team at the tournament and this time it was Amirhossein Esfandiar who scored 14 points to lead the team to victory – 3-2 (25-23, 15-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-10) over Argentina.

Jingyi Wang scored 21 times to help China persevere through a five-set drama against Canada and stamp a 3-2 (25-27, 26-24, 21-25, 28-26, 15-9) victory. While Wang was China’s most prolific player, Canada’s Tariq Sani topped him with 26 points, including five aces, to become the best scorer of the match.

The ninth place will be disputed in an all-European clash in Ceske Budejovice. Turkey and Italy secured their spots in this match, leaving Egypt and Ukraine to fight for the 11th place in the final standings.

Adis Lagumdzija broke the tournament’s scoring record by hammering out a fantastic 36 points for Turkey’s 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 28-26, 31-29) against Egypt.

Giulio Pinali was the best scorer in Italy’s speedy 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-18) win against Ukraine. He contributed 16 points to the victory.

USA and Japan will play for the 13th place in Ceske Budejovice on Sunday, after winning their playoff matches on Saturday. Hosts Czech Republic will have to settle for playing in the 15th place match against the team of Morocco.

All 12 players on USA’s roster took part in the match against Morocco. All, but three, managed to score points by blocking for a total of 14, which helped the Americans master a 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-21) shutout.

Japan and the Czech Republic played a five-set thriller in which the Asian team came from two sets behind to win the match. Kento Miyaura scored 21 points to lead the Japanese squad to a 3-2 (22-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, 15-13) victory over the Czechs.