Italy and China win on the last day of World League intercontinental round

(BEIJING, July 21) -- Italy beat Cuba and China defeated Japan on the final day of the intercontinental round of the FIVB World League on Sunday. With all the final round spots decided before the matches -- and only Japan headed to the final round -- the teams were already looking ahead to the next big tournament: the Beijing Olympics Games.

Italy, an eight-time winner of the World League in the 1990s, finished second in pool B with 20 points, while Cuba finished third. The Italians beat Cuba 25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 25-23 on Sunday to end their WL campaign on a high note, despite losing the top spot in the pool to Russia. "I am happy to close this phase with two successes," said Italian captain Hristo Zlatanov at a post-match press conference. "We are working for the future. Not a good shape but it was important to win in order to say that we will be in Beijing to try to do something important."

China beat Japan 25-20, 25-21, 27-29, 25-23 at Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium on Sunday to finish second in pool D. China also defeated Japan on Saturday. Japan finished third in the pool but has been selected as the wild-card team for the final round.

Serbia, Russia, USA and Poland have earned the final round spots of their respective pools and will join hosts Brazil and wild-card Japan when the final round begins on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro.