29.08.04, Sunday ~ Hyped factor: 4/10

sad... women's volleyball finals juz ended...
cant believe i shed a tear for the Russian team and for my fave player, Gamova.
Yup, u've guessed it, the russian lost... it was the battle of the powerhouse.
china was ranked world no1 in vball... pretty surprised. brazil was gd cos their
blocks were superb by quite a few tall players... china though disadvantaged make
it up by having very good digs( catching spikes shot)

the match was better than russia vs brazil...overall it stretched to abt 2 hrs.
longest game i ever watched and considered the best in the olympics history as commented.

first set. after russia and china each have 3 set point and wasted them, russia came
frm behind and took the set after a very long time. 30-28

second set was also very close with russia edging at 27-25 after wasted 2 set points

third set china fought back to win 25-20

russia tried to keep up but they faced gd blocks and digs so have to give
up the impt set to China at 23-25

last deciding set... Of course China took it 15-12

Tears started flowing frm the russian side. so near yet so far. reminds me of
jiawei who also needed juz 1 more set. realised that Gamova isnt a really gd digger.
probably she's too tall so i think china took advantage and russia lost a few points
when she's the rear player. sobs...

nvr see gamova cry so terribly... at sydney she also won silver. next yr she joined
she would be 27 same as jiawei. but a few of the current russian members would have
passed 30. :(

Americans also got an upset when they lost their pet event 4 x 100m... so the women
and the men teams went down. and china got a few surprising gold in kayaking and
track. i guess they will be tied soon again in the medal tally. China won gold and
bronze in diving :] plus vball again...