Iran exacted revenge for their 3-2 defeat at Rio 2016 with a 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 23-21) victory in their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games rematch with Poland at Ariake Arena on Saturday.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Volleyball
Heroic trio powers Iran past rivals Poland, 2016 medallists win on opening day
The Olympic match duration record broken twice
Published 03:39, 24 Jul 2021
What started as an intense match between strong rivals Poland and Iran, transitioned into the longest match in Olympic history (since the introduction of the rally-scoring system as of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games) and lasted for 2 hours and 37 minutes, beating the record of 2:17 which was set earlier in the day during the match between Italy and Canada.
The previous record of 2:16 was set jointly by the five-set matches between USA and Greece (3-2) in the Athens 2004 quarterfinal, and Russia and Poland in a London 2012 pool play match.
Amir Ghafour, Meisam Salehi and Milad Ebadipour powered Iran with 19, 18 and 17 points, respectively, to outplay Poland's high-scoring duo of Wilfredo Leon and Bartosz Kurek who had 23 and 17 markers.
“I am so happy we were able to win this tough match. I think our fans would still be proud of us even if we lost this match, because they know we gave it our all in this match,” Ghafour said.
Poland imposed their power game early on, as Bartosz Kurek and Wilfredo Leon scored six points apiece to get the opening set win at 25-22. However, the Iranians managed to contain the Polish scoring outbursts and limited their two hitters to score a total of 13 markers in the next two sets.
The Asian powerhouse gained a 2-1 set edge against the world champions courtesy of their excellent net defence and more organised sets from Saied Marouf, that set up hitters Ghafour, Ebadipour and Salehi to run the offence.
Poland got their rhythm back in the fourth set and built a three-point advantage after the second technical timeout, then Kurek and Leon pushed harder to reach set point, until a Morteza Sharifi service blunder sent the match to tie-break.
Poland’s blocking was in full force at the start of the set, but Iran fought in the succeeding plays to extend the deciding set with a two-point edge. The two sides exchanged points until Ebadipour blocked Kurek and hit the match-winner.
“It was a pressure point and we are always put in many situations like this, but I think it was our good system of blocking and defending that helped us today,” Ebadipour said.
“Both teams played a really amazing game, but I think we grabbed that chance to win this time.”
Also on Saturday, all three Rio 2016 medallist teams earned victories..
Brazil started their Olympic title defence with a straight-set (25-22, 25-20, 25-15) victory, despite a gallant stand by Tunisia.
The reigning Olympic champions, led by captain Bruno Rezende, commended the efforts of their African counterparts, as they pushed them to the limit before caving in the first two sets.
“We were nervous in the first set and Tunisia played very well,” the Brazilian captain said. “They have a young and good opposite (Wassim Ben Tara) and they are a good team. We also committed a lot of mistakes on our serves and sideout. We didn’t play well in the first two sets, but when we played smarter we were able to lessen our turnovers. We just have to keep improving to reach our standards.”
With the first match win in the bag, the Brazilians are determined to keep their momentum going and chase their fifth consecutive medal and second straight gold.
“We cannot just give up on our dream. Instead we should always dream high of winning the gold. But we should also be mindful of how many teams (in this competition) can win the gold medal because that is how we respect all these teams. We will give our best in each match because our dream and our hunger for gold is still the same as five years ago.”
Italy opened the Olympic men’s volleyball competition with a five-set (26-28, 18-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-11) victory over Canada.
The Rio 2016 silver medallists found a way out of the tough encounter by utilising their young outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto to fight through the tough block implemented by the Canadians.
The left-handed Michieletto tallied 24 points off 18 kills, three blocks and three service winners.
Brazil and Italy share the record for most Olympic medals in men’s volleyball. The South Americans have three gold medals and three silver medals, while the Europeans have three silver and three bronze medals.
The United States dictated the tempo of the match against France with well-balanced plays from Micah Christenson that enabled hitters Taylor Sander, Matt Anderson and Torey Defalco to be more aggressive on the attack.
USA logged a straight-set (25-18, 25-18, 25-22) win, with Sander topping all scorers with 15 points and Anderson and Defalco with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, ROC avenged their Rio 2016 four-set loss to Argentina with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-15) triumph at Tokyo 2020. After dropping the first set, ROC picked up their pace to seize the succeeding sets from their opponents.
ROC wingmen Maxim Mikhaylov and Dmitriy Volkov led their side with 18 and 17 points, respectively, and helped out their middles Ivan Iakovlev and Artem Volvich on defence. The ROC athletes controlled the net well and mounted a total of 13 blocks in the match.
As for hosts Japan, left-side hitters Yuki Ishikawa and Ran Takahashi were dominant in the match against Venezuela. Ishikawa and Takahashi produced double-digit outputs to command the team’s offence and outplay their South American counterparts 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-15).
In their Olympic debut, Ishikawa led all scorers with 15 markers, while Takahashi added 11.
“I am very excited to be in the Olympic Games because it is very different from other competitions I have played in,” Takahashi said.
“In the beginning I did my best but lost my focus towards the end. I think this is something I have to work on for the next match against Canada. Nevertheless, I am very happy about winning my first Olympic match and I hope this victory will influence the succeeding matches."
Men’s volleyball action will return on Monday with Iran and Venezuela facing off at 09.00, followed by the match between USA and ROC at 11.05. The reigning world champions Poland will play in the third match at 14.20 against Italy, before the France and Tunisia encounter at 14.25.
Japan will play Canada in the evening at 19.40, before the South American derby between Brazil and Argentina at 21.45.