One month after first serve, the memories of Rio 2016 still linger

Lausanne, Switzerland, September 5, 2016 – With a two-minute delay, at exactly 09:32 local time a month ago to the day, Dominican referee Denny Cespedes blew the first whistle and Korea’s Park Jeongah stepped up to the service line in Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracanazinho Stadium to get the biggest volleyball spectacle on the planet rolling.Captain Saori Kimura replied with a spike that earned Japan the first point of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – but the quick first rally of the competition marked the start of two wonderful weeks of women’s and men’s volleyball, full of smiles and tears, exhilaration and depression, pure joy and utter devastation.Highlights of the Rio 2016 women’s final, China v Serbia.In the end, 5,986 rallies later, it was the third Asian side in Rio 2016 that emerged triumphant, when China’s Hui Ruoqi took advantage of Zhang CHangning’s poorly received service to spike uncontested the end and bring home match point of the final match against Serbia.Captain Hui Ruoqi celebrates after scoring match points for Olympic gold against Serbia in the Rio 2016 final.It was China’s first gold medal since Athens 2004 and third in total, allowing the Asian side to overtake Cuba in the overall …

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