Hundreds of children joined the final stage of the Mini Volleyball World Championship held at Palaflorio in Bari, one of the venues of the upcoming FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014
Bari, Italy, September 14, 2014 – The final round of the Mini Volley World Championship organised ahead of the upcoming FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 was held on Sunday morning at Palaflorio in Bari, one of the venues of the much anticipated tournament that will be stopping in six different cities across the Italian peninsula.
The tournament involved young players from all corners of the region of Apulia who got to test the venue that will open its doors to the world’s volleyball elite on September 23 and that will be also hosting the second round of the World Championship through October 5.
The event held on Sunday was the final stage of a long competition that started in May with the ultimate goal of involving as many children as possible so that they are motivated to show up and attend some of the matches taking place at Palaflorio during the World Champship. The young players attending the final of the mini volley competition received gifts and T-shirts with the official logo of the Bari Organising Committee as well as a ticket to attend one of the matches.
The teams participating in the finals were composed of 12 players, thereby accounting for a boys’ and girls’ team as well as for enough children to compete in the mixed event. Since the teams that had joined the tournament from the qualification round were assigned the task to virtually represent one of the countries competing at the upcoming World Championship, the “national teams” of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Japan, Italy, USA, Mexico, Russia and the Netherlands were those who competed at the finals held on Sunday morning at Palaflorio.
As they dream about a career in volleyball, the young participants enjoyed a great atmosphere at Palaflorio as their matches were closely followed by Tore, the mascot that is to be seen in all volleyball events organised in the region of Apulia. There were no winners or losers at the end of the competition as every participant received gifts and took pictures to go home with some mementos of an unforgettable day.
The arena in Bari will hots the matches of preliminary Pool D, which includes the national teams of Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, Cuba, Japan and Puerto Rico.