There was good news overnight for Australia’s women’s volleyballers with the game’s governing body, the FIVB, announcing that the premier annual women’s volleyball tournament, the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix will include 28 countries for the first time in its history as of 2014.
This news came one day after the World League Council approved the expansion of the World League also to 28 teams. This sees an increase of eight teams from the 20 who competed earlier this year.
A draw was conducted during the meeting and what position each nation fills in the pool distribution. The 28 participating countries have already been split across 19 pools. Australia finds itself in Pools P to S along with Kenya, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Bulgaria.
The distribution of teams was based on world rankings with the exception of Belgium and Cuba, who both qualified via continental qualification tournaments. Australia will take its place in the tournament as part of the Oceania development program.
The preliminary round will take place for Australia from July 25-27 in Kazakhstan followed by week two in Croatia from August 1-3.
This is the test Australia has been waiting for and hopefully the improvement shown in the recent tournament in Vietnam can be built on and the girls can make their mark.
