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Published on July 28, 2007

Invincible Brazil brought the curtain down on the Women's Junior World Championship with a bang, powering past Asian champions China in the final showdown to make it four crowns in a row.

The sensational 25-22 24-26 26-24 25-14 victory meant that the Brazilians are winners in the World Championship for a record sixth time. Since the tournament's inception in 1977 in Sao Paolo, Brazil won in 1987 in Seoul and went on to repeat the feat in 1989, 2001, 2003, 2005 and now 2007.

Yesterday's exceptional win underlined the strength of Brazilian volleyball. Their national men's team won the World League in Katowice, Poland on July 1 and just 15 days later, the Brazilian men's junior squad captured the world title in Casablanca, Morocco. Twelve days later, their women's juniors retained their world crown.

With success in all levels, Brazil sent a warning signal to the rest of the world that they are indomitable in any major tournament. Yesterday's victory also dashed China's dreams of winning their second world crown since a triumph in the 1995 edition in Bangkok.

Japan clinched third place after stunning the US with a hard-fought five-set thriller 25-16 14-25 25-17 20-25 25-23, while European champions Italy claimed fifth place, brushing aside Ukraine 18-25 25-21 25-17 25-22.

Meanwhile, in the seventh-place play-off, the hosts failed to make their mark on the final day and went down to Germany, the team they beat in the group round-robin preliminaries, 1-3 (25-27 10-25 25-22 23-25).

It was the best performance ever by a Thailand team in three appearances in the World Championship as hosts. In 1995, they finished a distant 13th and came back strongly to finish ninth place in Suphan Buri in 2003.

Puerto Rico finished ninth after beating Croatia 3-1 (27-29 25-19 26-24 25-17), and the Dominican Republic came 11th after beating the two-time African champions Egypt 25-15 25-21 25-11.

Team rankings: 1. Brazil; 2. China; 3. Japan; 4. the US; 5. Italy; 6. Ukraine; 7. Germany; 8. Thailand; 9. Puerto Rico; 10. Croatia; 11. Dominican Republic; 12. 

Individual awards: Best attacker: Natalia Pereira (Brazil); Best setter: Miho Watanabe (Japan); Best scorer: Natalia Pereira (Brazil); Best blocker: Camila Monteiro (Brazil); Best libero player: Camila Brait (Brazil); Best server: Kelly Murphy (USA); Most valuable player (MVP): Natalia Pereira (Brazil).

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

The Nation

Nakhon Ratchasima