Tokyo, Japan, May 15, 2008 – Eight teams from three continents are arriving in Tokyo for the Women’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament which is scheduled to start on May 17 while the FIVB Control Committee (CC) and the event’s National Operation Committee(NOC) are making careful and extensive inspections to the competition hall, teams’ hotel, training halls and other facilities so as to make certain that the event is going to operate smoothly.

All the participating teams are already training in the training camps in other cities of Japan and Polish team arrived in Tokyo yesterday and Serbia, Japan, Puerto Rico, Dominican, Korea, Thailand and Kazakhstan are expected to be here today.

Mr. Abdelhadi Ghzali, CC President, Who made his inspection to the competition immediately after his arrival yesterday, said at the second CC and NOC joint meeting this morning that he is satisfied with the preparations, saying the organizing Committee did excellent preparation work and has no problems in hosting the event as they have enough expertise and experience in hosting such a tournament.

The CC President said “We are determined to keep the Volleyball flying and this tournament is the continuis process to make Volleyball develop. The Women’s World Olympic Tournament in one of the most important competitions which is drawing strong teams from three continents. Thought it, the participating teams are going to make friendship, to promote Volleyball and further the image of FIVB.”

It is confirmed at the meeting that everything has been going smoothly as planned. The host is ready for the top-flight competition. FIVB CC members expressed their satisfaction with the preparation in their remarks. Mr. Thomas Blue, FIVB Referee Delegate said he believed the competition hall is ready for competitions.

Mr. Katsumi Wakao, NOC Executive Tournament Manager, said that “After one month preparation things are going smoothly and We are ready for the tournament,” and stressed the importance of TV and media coverage for the success of this big event, adding the hosting TV has arranged for all matches involving Japan to be televised live nationwide and TV rights are also sold to other countries.

The press center in the competition hall has prepared more than 100 seats for journalist in the press working area where press facilities, including power supply, internet, phones, fax machines, printers, etc. are all ready. In the press conference room there are 18 tables with 54 seats.

The General Technical Meeting will take place tomorrow noon at Tokyo Prince Hotel where the teams are staying. After this session, there will be a press conference with all the eight coaches in their first contact with the media