Following a sixth-place finish at the Asian Women’s Championships earlier this month, South Korea’s women’s volleyball team will look to redeem itself at the Hangzhou Asian Games after losing its seventh straight qualifying match for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Led by head coach Cesar Hernández González, the South Korean team (ranked 38th in the world by the International Volleyball Federation) fell to Slovenia (ranked 26th) by a set score of 0-3 (13-25 20-25 23-25) in the seventh match of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Group C Qualification Tournament in Łódź, Poland, on Thursday (July 24).
This was the seventh consecutive loss for South Korea in this qualifier, following losses to Italy (0-3), Poland (1-3), Germany (2-3), USA (1-3), Colombia (2-3), and Thailand (0-3), and the team finished in last place.
The team’s performance was better than at the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) and Asian Championships, with a one-set victory over world No. 7 Poland and a narrow loss to No. 12 Germany, but it was far from good enough to qualify for the Olympic Games, where the world’s 12 best teams will compete.
The 24-nation World Qualifier is divided into three groups of eight nations, with the first and second place finishers in each group punching their ticket to Paris.레고토토
In Group A, the Dominican Republic (9th) and Serbia (2nd) qualified for Paris.
In Group B, No. 1-ranked Turkuye is the first to qualify after winning all seven games, while Group C is a toss-up.
Volleyball International will award seven Olympic berths to the six nations that qualified through the World Qualifier, plus Olympic host France.
It will also allocate five additional tickets to the highest-ranked nations that did not qualify before next year’s Olympic Games.
South Korea’s world ranking is so low that its bid to qualify for a fourth consecutive Olympics is effectively over.
The women’s team will leave Poland for Doha, Qatar, and arrive in Hangzhou, China, where the Asian Games will be held, on June 26.