Yugoslavia, Brazil and USA (men) together with Germany and USA (women) join the list of qualified teams for Sydney 2000.

Brazil, Yugoslavia and USA men's volleyball teams have qualified for Sydney 2000 Games, together with Germany and USA women's teams. This is the outcome of the continental Olympic qualification events that finished yesterday, (Sunday 9 January). In Europe, Yugoslavia, runners-up of the last World Championship in 1998, clinched their Olympic entry yesterday in Katowice, Poland, by defeating Bulgaria in the final straight sets match (25-22, 25-13, 25-16). For the women, Germany won the tournament organised at home, in Bremen, preceding Italy and Croatia, to qualify for the Olympics. In NorCeCa zone, both men's and women's qualification events had the same final ending, with a double victory and Olympic qualification for the Teams USA preceding Teams Canada. In Winnipeg, Canada, the US men's team won the final from their Northern neighbours in 3 sets (25-20, 30-28 and 25-21) while their women's counterpart beat Canada 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-22) at home, in Lakeland, Florida. The result of the men's South American Qualification final, played yesterday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was very tight, and the host team had to struggle during 5 sets to eliminate Argentina, their eternal continental rival (21-25, 32-30, 25-22, 33-35, 15-13). Two more continental Olympic qualifications were played previously: Peru qualified in the South American women's event while South Korea won the men's Asian tournament. The African qualification legs, are scheduled for the second half of this month: in Cairo, Egypt for men (Jan. 25-30) and in Nairobi, Kenya (Jan. 15-20), for women. The berth for a women's Asian team will be assigned in Tokyo (June 17-25). The remaining Olympic berths will be attributed during FIVB World Olympic qualification tournaments scheduled in Tokyo for women (combined with the Asian leg in June) and in Europe for men's (July 21-23 in Portugal, 24-26 in Greece and 25-27 in France). The 8 teams qualified to play the women's event are Japan, China, Korea, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Canada and Argentina. The top 3 will qualify together with the best Asian team. For the men, the 12 qualified teams are: Portugal, Greece and France (the three organisers), Spain, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, China, Japan, Chinese Taipei plus one African team to be known after the continental event. Teams already qualified for Sydney 2000: Men: Australia (host nation), Russia, Cuba, Italy (Top-3 of the World Cup '99), South Korea, Brazil, Yugoslavia and USA. Women: Australia (host nation), Cuba, Russia, Brazil (Top-3 of the World Cup '99), Peru, Germany, and USA Information and updates on the Olympic qualification process available on our website: http://www.fivb.org/Olympics/2000-Sydney. _____________________________________________________________________ FIVB - FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE VOLLEYBALL Communication Department - Contact: Carlos Sanchez Av. de la Gare 12, 1001 Lausanne - Switzerland Tel.: +41.21.345.3535 - Fax. +41.21.345.3545 E-mail: communication@fivb.ch - Website: http://www.fivb.org