And then there were four – Rio-bound volleyball teams decided

Tokyo, Japan, May 21, 2016 – The four teams to earn tickets for this year’s Olympic Games have all been decided on a dramatic penultimate day at the Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan.

Host nation Japan, fellow Asian team Korea, and European teams Italy and Netherlands all secured their berths for Rio, despite both Japan and Korea losing five-set contests on Saturday.

Italy will go to it’s fifth consecutive Olympics after beating Japan 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 27-25, 21-25, 15-9), while Japan will go to a record-equalling 12th Olympics on the strength of the single point it picks up for winning two sets. 

The Netherlands is off to its first Olympics in 20 years after beating Peru 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-17), while at the same time ending the Rio hopes of the young South Americans.

The Dutch came into the tournament as one of the favourites, and despite occasional hiccups, showed they will be competitive in Brazil.

The women have not been to an Olympics since 1996. Captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues was eight at the time, but only remembers watching the Dutch men win gold.

Earlier, Thailand staged a dramatic comeback to keep its hopes of a first ever Olympics alive, while Korea confirmed as the first team in Japan to qualify for Rio after a dramatic 3-2 (19-25, 22-25, 29-27, 26-24, 15-12) win for Thailand.

The win gave Thailand two points and moved it to nine, at the time two points behind Japan, while Korea was safe on 13 points. It will be Korea’s 11th Olympic Games.

But Thailand was once again left one position short after Japan secured it’s point against Italy.

Not for the first time this week Thai fans were kept on the edge of their seats for more than two hours, while their team slipped and slided but, …

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