Tokyo, Japan, May 14, 2008 – Eight Women Teams will gather in the dazzling capital city of Japan from May 17 – 25 to compete against each other in the Women’s World Qualification Tournament to vie for the last four tickets to 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The round-robin tournament doubles up also as the Asian Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament and so the best three teams plus the best Asian team (even if any of the best three teams are Asians) will book their berths in the Volleyball Tournament of the Olympic Games.

Host Japan will be joined by Thailand, Korea, Kazakhstan (best-ranked teams at the 2007 Asian Volleyball Championship), Serbia and Poland (beat-ranked teams from Europe), Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (best-ranked teams from NORCECA).

All the eight teams will have the equal chances to fight for the four places available at the Summer Games in August in Beijing. However, according to the latest World Rankings published on January 5 of 2008 and their performances in the FIVB 2007 World Cup, Poland, Serbia and Japan are considered the most probable candidates for the tickets on offer in the tournament.

Ranked 7th in the world, the highest ranking among the eight participating teams, Serbia finished 5th in the World Cup and won the silver medal at the 2007 European Championship after losing to World Champion Italy. At the 2007 World Cup, Serbia beat Japan (3-1), Korea (3-0), Thailand (3-0) and Dominican Republic (3-0). They only lost to Poland after a five-set tiebreaker.

Two-times European champion Poland is expected to join their European counterparts to earn a place in Beijing. Poland placed sixth in the World Cup, where they defeated Serbia (3-0), Korea (3-1) and Thailand (3-0), but was beaten by Japan (2-3) and Dominican Republic (0-3). In the European Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament in January of 2008, The sixth world-ranked Poland crushed Serbia again before they were overpowered 2-3 by Russia in the final.

Host Japan, ranked 8th in the world, is another team who comes as a great favorite to clinch the Olympic berth with their excellent performance in the world important competitions. With Shokhi Yanagimoto becoming the head coach, the Japanese squad put a stop to the absences from the Olympics and finished in fifth place in Athens. In the 2006 World Championship, Japan missed an opportunity to win a medal by finishing fifth. Japan placed 7th in the 2007 World Cup where they brushed aside Poland, Dominican Republic, Korea and Thailand,

The most inspiration to Japan is that they blanked China in straight sets at 2007 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship. This is the first time Japan beat China in five years and the third time in 24 years.

Even if Japan fails to enter the top three, they still probably finish as the best Asian team at the Tournament as Korea, Kazakhstan and Thailand may not pose great threats to Japan.

Korea, who ranks 11th in the world, was one of the three strongest teams (the other two are China and Japan), performed not very well in the recent major international tournaments, However, the team are showing progress, beating Thailand and the Dominican Republic and finishing 8th, just behind Japan in the World Cup. They hope the Olympic Qualification Tournament to be the turning point toward Korea’s resurrection. Head coach Mr. Lee Jung-Chul is now working hard with his players to book a ticket to Beijing. If Japan finishes the top three, Korea will have more chance to become the best Asian team in the tournament.

Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan and Thailand must be also reckoned with seriously. They are certainly to put up strong challenges to the above-mentioned teams so as to get the Olympic tickets.

Puerto Rico, ranked 19 and the Dominican Republic, ranked 14th in the World, finished only third and fourth at the NORCECA Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament last December in Mexico, failing to make the Olympics. Now they will have their second chances to realize their dreams.

After getting news of inclusion in the Qualification Tournament, the Puerto Rico Volleyball Federation has began to prepare the national team for the competition in Japan. They appointed Carlos Cardona from Argentina as the new team adviser.

The Dominican Hopes of qualification for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were dashed after they were beaten by Canada 3-0 (24-26, 17-25, 19-25) in the semi-finals of the Women’s Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament in December 2007 and they eventually finished fourth after losing the bronze-medal match 3-2 to Puerto Rico. Now everything is focused on the Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tokyo, Japan.

Thailand surprised Asian Volleyball family by defeating Korea, Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei, ending the third place after Japan and China at the 2007 Asian Championship , and ranked 10th at the World Cup for the first time. The Thai women team will try their best to vie with Korea and Kazakhstan for the Olympic ticket as the best Asian team.

Italy, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela have already booked their tickets to Beijing through the FIVB 2007 World Cup or Continental Qualification Tournaments, while China has qualified as the host country.

Following is the schedule:(All times are local)

Saturday, May 17

Thailand vs. Dominican Republic (11:05)

Korea vs. Puerto Rico (13:05)

Serbia vs. Kazakhstan (15:05)

Poland vs. Japan (18:00)

Sunday, May 18

Dominican Republic vs. Serbia (11:05)

Korea vs. Thailand (13:05)

Kazakhstan vs. Poland (15:05)

Puerto Rico vs. Japan (18:00)

Monday, May 19 – Rest Day

Tuesday, May 20

Thailand vs. Puerto Rico (11:35)

Serbia vs. Korea (13:35)

Poland vs. Dominican Republic (15:35)

Japan vs. Kazakhstan (18:30)

Wednesday, May 21

Thailand vs. Serbia (11:35)

Puerto Rico vs. Kazakhstan (13:35)

Korea vs. Poland (15:35)

Dominican Republic vs. Japan (18:30)

Thursday, May 22 – Rest Day

Friday, May 23

Kazakhstan vs. Dominican Republic (11:35)

Serbia vs. Puerto Rico (13:35)

Poland vs. Thailand (15:35)

Japan vs. Korea (18:30)

Saturday, May 24

Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic (11:05)

Serbia vs. Poland (13:05)

Korea vs. Kazakhstan (15:05)

Thailand vs. Japan (18:00)

Sunday, May 25

Dominican Republic vs. Korea (11:05)

Kazakhstan vs. Thailand (13:05)

Poland vs. Puerto Rico (15:05)

Japan vs. Serbia (18:00)