Japan has steamrolled their way to a gold medal match with China in
women's volleyball tournament afterbeating high-spirit Thailand 3-0 here on
Sunday.
It has been 20 years for Japan to re-enter the final since theywon a silver
medal in Seoul in 1986 while China took the championship.
Japan won Sunday's semifinal 32-30, 25-17, 25-17, while China secured the
other final berth, beating Chinese Taipei 25-17, 25-13and 25-17 earlier in the
day.
Thailand is at peak after staging a scintillating come-from-behind to beat
the 2002 Busan silver medalist South Korea 3-1 in quarterfinals.
However, the Japanese took a 3-0 lead in the opening set. The Thai players
immediately answered back with three deadly spikes tocatch up 3-3, when the set
became a tit-for-tat battlefield and was pulled into a 30-all before Japan won
with a pair of powerful spikes.
Both teams have shown great fighting spirit in front of more than 2,000 fans,
however, Japan left no chance with its rivals andtheir sound defense and quick
attacks helped them win the following two sets with an identical score of 25-17.
China will play Japan on Tuesday for the championship, while Chinese Taipei
fights against Thailand for the third-place.