June 04, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

TOKYO, June 3: Three-time former world volleyball champions Italy won a top-of-the-table clash against Australia for their third straight win in the final qualifying round for the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday. The Italians, who saved 11 match points to beat Japan on the first day, coasted to a surprisingly one-sided 25-17, 25-9, 25-16 victory to remain unbeaten in the eight-team round robin competition.

Asian champions Australia now have a 2-1 win-loss record to be tied with Argentina, Algeria and Japan, followed by Iran with 1-2. South Korea and Thailand remain winless.

Earlier on Tuesday, Argentina beat Algeria 25-18, 26-24, 25-22, while Iran came back from a set down to beat Thailand 19-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-14.

In the final match of the day, Japan defeated arch-rivals South Korea 25-21, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19.

The winners of the tournament and the best-placed Asian team will qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

“It was very important to win this match in order to keep our hopes alive in this tournament. I had expected it to be a tough match, but I’m glad we won it,” said Bulgarian-born Hristo Zlatanov, Italy’s top scorer with 17 points.

“Hopefully, we can keep winning like this and qualify for the Olympics because the Beijing Olympics will be probably my last Olympics,” the 32-year-old added.

Italian coach Andrea Anastasi and Zlatanov agreed that blocks were key to their victory. The Italians stopped a total of 13 Australian attacks, while their opponents had no success in 38 attempts.

Anastasi, however, refused to consider qualification for the Olympics yet, saying: “It’s too early to talk about the Beijing Olympics.

“At this moment, we have the best chance among the eight teams, that’s all. Nobody knows what will happen in the end. Besides, we have to improve our play as well,” said Anastasi.

Australian captain Benjamin Hardy said there was no disgrace in losing to the Italians.

“They are an experienced team, they kept putting pressure on us the whole match, and we couldn’t really find an answer,” he said.

“It was a tough game today, but we are looking forward now to [South] Korea tomorrow and trying to put this game behind us,” Hardy added.—AFP