Thailand fail to qualify for Rio Games
Thailand’s ultimate dreams of making the cut for the Olympic Games for the first time in Rio de Janeiro were completely shattered on Saturday night after Italy pulled off a hard-fought 3-2 (23-25 27-25 27-25 21-25 15-9) win over Japan in the World Olympi
With the dramatic win over the host side, Italy had 14 points from five wins against one loss, enough to qualify for the August Olympic Games. Earlier, the Netherlands and Korea have already booked their Olympic berths, with the former beating Peru to have 15 points from five wins against one loss.
Korea lost to Thailand 2-3, but had 13 points from four wins against two losses, sufficient to make their trip for Rio.
Japan, going down to Italy on Saturday night 2-3, had 12 points from four wins, one better than Thailand, which have only nine points from three wins against three losses.
With Italy, the Netherland and Korea advancing, only one Olympic ticket is remaining on offer for either Japan and Thailand.
On Sunday, the last day of the competition, Japan are due to take on the Netherlands and Thailand play Peru. If Japan go down in straight sets to the Netherlands and Thailand beat Peru in straight sets also, Japan then will have 12 points from four wins against three losses, while Thailand will have the similar performance - 12 points from four wins against three losses.
According to the competition rules and regulations, teams winning more matches will get better standings. If they have the similar amount of the “win matches”, the total points of each team will then be taken for consideration to decide the winners. Still, if both teams have the same amount of “win matches” and total points, the set ratio and points ratio will respectively be taken for consideration to determine the eventual winners.
At the end of Saturday matches, Japan’s set ratio is 1.875 against Thailand 1.000. Therefore, if Japan go down in straight sets to the Netherlands on Sunday, their set ratio will be 1.363, while Thailand, winning straight sets over Peru on Sunday will get them only 1.250. That means Japan are in the better situation to win the remaining Olympic ticket.
Learning that Thailand’s Olympic dream was completely shattered, Thai head coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai said in his Lines phone that it’s okay for the Thailand team. His players already did their best in the tournament. What they have to do is to keep on their best form against Peru on their last match on Sunday.
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