Russia wins volleyball title at 2017 BRICS Games

The volleyball event of the 2017 BRICS Games concluded here on June 21, with the host China beating Brazil 3-1 in the last match to place second.

Russia secured the gold medal on June 20 after finishing its campaign with a four-game winning run at the round-robin tournament among the five BRICS member countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"Congratulate my players. Our team had played against Brazil and China at the BRICS Games, which help us gather experience and know more about our opponents at the upcoming World Championships. I'm really looking forward to playing with them again next month," said Russian head coach Vadim Pankov at the post-game briefing.

The FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship is to be held in Mexico next month, and the three teams of Russia, Brazil and China, are all seen as the title contenders.

"It (the BRICS Games) was our first international tournament after we started training together two months ago. We learnt a lot after losing to Russia in the first match, and made some changes. The victory over Brazil will boost our confidence, then we'll go back to Zhangzhou city and continue our preparation for the upcoming U20 World Championships," said China's head coach Shen Mang.

The clash between China and Brazil seemed to be a close game after each took one set from the first two. China's Wu Han led the team to take the command of the game by her powerful service in the third and forth sets.

"We played really offensively in the last two sets, which was exactly what I want to see. We played more relaxed than before, and it brought us the victory," said Shen.

Despite defeats to both Russia and China, the third-placed Brazil still proved they are a competitive team.

"We are a young team, our players need to accumulate experience. Don't forget we had three important players who did't come to China with us, I believe that we can be stronger in Mexico next month," said Hairton Cabral de Oliveira, the head coach of Brazilian team.