WOMEN

 

7/8 finals

 

Chinese Taipei vs Tunisia 2:1 (23:15, 17:19, 6:5)

The optimism and good spirit of Chinese Taipei finally paid off in the 7th place final against Tunisia.

 

After a clear first period, in which Chinese Taipei won by 8 points, Tunisia came back in the second period and beat their opponents 19:17 so that the match went into shoot-outs. The luck was on the side of the Asian team who celebrated a 6:5 win.

 

Sz-Yu Lin could not hide her happiness, but still got critical about their performance: “We were really nervous before the game, but since we got to the court, we got excited and very concentrated instead. After we won the first period, I think we got too ambitious and nervous, so we weren’t able to win the second one. We overthought a lot of situations. We managed to get rid of our bad feelings at the second half of the set, but it was too late.”

 

5/6 finals

 

Australia vs Poland 0:2 (8:14, 8:12)

In a rather low-scoring 5th-place final of the women’s competition, hosts Poland celebrated a 2:0 win in front of a cheering home crowd.  

 

Yesterday, Australia’s Madeleine McAfee could not finish the match due to a clash leading to a muscle injury. A similar scenario occurred today when Ana Medjed was injured during an unfortunate encounter with one of the polish opponents.

 

“We played great, but we felt a lot of pressure because of the audience. We played for our people and we didn’t want to let them down. We are really satisfied with the result as these are our first World Games,” said Sylwia Bartowiak from Poland.

 

MEN

 

7/8 finals

 

Poland vs Egypt 2:0 (16:11, 14:8)

During the 2005 World Games in Duisburg, Germany Egypt ranked 6th and attended this year’s edition with a new, inexperienced young team.

 

Poland used their advantage in experience and the support of the home audience and won both periods of the match.

 

“I believe we played a good game, but it was a bad luck,” said the Egyptian youngster Mohamed Abousalem Abdelmnem Tarek.

 

Poland were not satisfied with how the tournament turned for them: “This is not a good result for us, we wanted to do better. But the atmosphere was great and enjoyable,” commented Adrian Fiodor.

 

5/6 finals

 

Uruguay vs Australia 2:0 (18:14, 18:17)

Both teams started their battle motivated and with a lot of determination but in the end only one team could win. In a close encounter Uruguay, however, proved to be the better team and won 2:0.

 

“To win was the only option for us. Australia won our first match on this tournament, so we knew we have to bounce of the bottom and get the best of us. We’re already thinking about the Pan American Championships in February and we’re excited about that. This tournament definitely helped us to get more confident,” explained Felipe Adler Bonifacino from Uruguay.