Russia beats Brazil in final at volleyball worlds; Japan gets bronze

Japan gets brone, what a perfect prediction by 'some14some'...! yes, i am little proud of it !

Good work Japan!

Great game against the States last night! Congrats to Japan's women's team winning a medal for the first time in 32 years.

It must really irk the Chinese that they got 10th place and the Japanese, who they beat, got 3rd place. Turkey has really improved, they got 6th place after Italy. Turkey took a set from Japan.

exciting match between Russia and Brazil!they were trading leads in the last set. good job Gamova. it's really a a big advantage if you're tall.

I wish I had seen this Russia vs. Brazil match! Bronze ain't too bad, Japan tried it's best. Otuskare!

Who was it that said that Japan was lucky to make it because their group was easier? Well, the two semi-finalists from Japan's ended up (Russia and Japan of course) ended up winning 3 of 4 games against the two semi-finalists in the other (Brazil and the US, the only loss obviously was Japan going down to Brazil 3-2). Anyways, congrats to all the teams, especially the three medalists!

They need to get a shrinking machine like the one in Fantastic Voyage completed to shrink these tall teams down to level the playing field. If Gamova and these over 190 cm tall Russians were shrunk to a height on a par with, for example, the Japanese players, they would probably be unable to score more than 15 points in any set in a match with Japan.

Sarge, have you seen some of the Japanese players - they are TALL! If the smaller players were not effective, the coach would not have chosen them time and time again.

You've used the words Chinese and irked in two consecutive volleyball posts. And I'll say it again, YOU are irked that the Chinese beat the Japanese team. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes obvious. Just sit back and enjoy it all while the good-feel factor lasts....because not all the tournaments can be held in Japan, surely(?)

Japan gets brone, what a perfect prediction by 'some14some'...! yes, i am little proud of it !

You honestly predicted "brone"? You genius, you :)

The Russian team average height is 188cm, the Japanese team averages 161cm. If they had a Fantastic Voyage style shrinking machine and shrunk the Russian team down to an average 161cm to make it a fair fight, they probably wouldn't score more than 15 points against the Japanese in any set.

It would be really interesting to shrink the Russians down to an average 134cm so the Japanese have the same 27cm height advantage the Russians have and then see how they do. I bet they wouldn't score more than 5 points in any set.