The favourites of the men’s volleyball tournament at the XVII Mediterranean Games in Mersin on the southern Turkish shores – the team of Italy, won the gold medals after a hard-fought battle against Tunisia. Despite the relatively low interest in the volleyball tournament in the Games in general, the seven nations participating in this year’s edition sent pretty strong rosters that guaranteed interesting results.
The reigning volleyball champions Italy, coached by the legendary player Andrea Giani, arrived in Turkey to defend their title from the home Games in Pescara from 2009. In the final of the men’s tournament Squarda Azzurra met Tunisia. Due to a lack of recent international events, the Africans sent to Mersin their first squad, most of whom took part in last year’s Olympics in London. The gold medal match offered a lot of ups and downs and it was the guys of Andrea Giani with the tie-break win and fifth success in history (15-25, 25-22, 25-18, 27-29, 15-13). The outside attacker Filippo Lanza from Itas Diatec Trentino was the highest scorer for the champions with an impressive record of 29 points. Lanza was supported by the BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte’s trio – the setter Marco Falaschi, Giulio Sabbi and Ludovico Dolfo, with the last two finishing with 12 and 21 points respectively. The Tunisian opposite Marouan Garci (ES Sahel) and his teammate at position four Elyes Karamosly (Esperance) contributed with 18 points each for the runner-ups. Ismail Moalla (Sfaxien) added 15.
The tournament did not start perfectly for the Italians who were stunned in the preliminary pool by another African team – Algeria, on the second gameday of the programme. The defeat resulted in an impressive straight-set victory against Tunisia on the last day, thus allowing Italy to top the pool ahead of Tunisia. It was a disappointing event for the Macedonia, coached by the Bulgarian Nikolay Zhelyazkov, whose boys won convincingly the World Cup qualifiers at home before the Games and had been hoping for something more than a consolation participation. They left Mersin without a win and with zero points.
In the other preliminary pool the hosts were set in the company of France and Egypt. The pharaohs gathered their A team, led by the versatile setter Ahmed Abdalla, currently playing his volleyball for Al-Ahly in the domestic league, and the opposite Ahmed Abdelhay – one of the stars of the Turkish league with his team Halkbank Ankara. Egypt started the Games well, overcoming France in five sets. An unfortunate defeat against the home side, followed by a French win over Turkey, however, meant that Egypt, winner of the 2005 Games in Almeria, Spain, would not even make it to the semifinals. France, led by Toafa Takaniko (Arago de Sete), Baptiste Geiler (a new signing for VfB Friedrichshafen) and Horacio D’Almeida (Tourcoing Lille Metropole), topped Pool A ahead of Turkey.
Two very intense semifinals saw Italy struggle with Turkey to eventually make it to the final after a 3-2 win (21-25, 25-19, 25-15, 21-25, 15-12). France could not make it to an all-European gold medal encounter and lost to the enthusiastic Tunisians in four sets (20–25 25–17 24–26 20–25 ).
Egypt won the African battle for the fifth place, beating Algeria 3-0 (25–14 25–19 25–20).
Two hours before Italy regained the Mediterranean crown the two-time winners France grabbed the bronze medals after a tie-break victory over the home favourites Turkey (25-21, 17-25, 18-25, 25-21, 15-12).
Final standings:
1 – Italy
2 – Tunisia
3 – France
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4 – Turkey
5 – Egypt
6 – Algeria
7 – Macedonia