Italy claim U21 Men’s World Championship title to lead another European clean sweep
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Italy added another triumph to a truly terrific collection of honours across all sports in a truly memorable year as their rising stars claimed on Sunday the FIVB Volleyball U21 Men’s World Championship crown. At home in Cagliari, they dropped only two sets (both in the semi-final against Poland where they came back from 0-2) in eight matches to celebrate as first-time U21 world champions, thus confirming their achievement at the U19 World Championship in Tunisia two years ago, when they also topped the podium.
Europe’s supremacy at the event co-hosted by Italy and Bulgaria was crystal-clear, with a clean sweep of the podium, as Russia and Poland finished second and third, respectively.
With this result, European teams completed a clean sweep of all titles at stake at this year’s age-group World Championships. Earlier this summer, Italy had triumphed at the U20 Women’s event held in the Netherlands and Belgium, with Serbia and Russia completing the podium. Last week, Russia and Italy had won gold and silver, respectively, at the U18 Girls’ championship in Mexico and in early September, Poland and Bulgaria had emerged as the top two finishers at the U19 Boys’ event in Iran. This means that European teams managed to secure 10 out of 12 medals at stake – including all gold and silver medals – and this means that the future of European Volleyball could not look any brighter!
Italy were well in control of the first set of the final, but in the second they had to come back from a four-point deficit and win it on a three-point run at the end. Five points in a row gave the Italians a 10-6 lead in the third set and they never looked back to win the match by 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-20). Rising star and CEV EuroVolley 2021 gold medallist Alessandro Michieletto was the best scorer of the match on 18 points for the winners.
Alessandro Michieletto“I am living a dream now! I am thankful to all my teammates, to the staff, because it was not easy. It was a complicated tournament for us, despite the results that might have looked like easy victories from the outside. Yesterday, we won in the semi-final, but we knew that we were not perfect. Today, we showed our game. I want to thank again my teammates and the staff, who took care of me and helped me work in the best possible conditions, so that I can support the team as well."
Outside hitter of Italy and MVP
Poland had no problems to deal with in the bronze medal match earlier on Sunday in Cagliari. They delivered an emphatic 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-19) shutout of Argentina, outplaying the opponents in all point-scoring elements. Polish opposite Dawid Dulski produced the 21-point match high.
Italy’s outside Alessandro Michieletto emerged as the Most Valuable Player of the U21 World Championship. The Dream Team of the tournament includes another four Italians - setter Paolo Porro, outside hitter Tommaso Rinaldi, middle blocker Nicola Cianciotta and libero Damiano Catania. The remaining three spots went to the other three teams that made the semi-finals – and namely to Russia’s opposite Roman Murashko, Poland’s middle blocker Karol Urbanowicz and Argentina’s outside hitter Manuel Armoa.