Greece's Rafail Koumentakis strikes against the Chinese Taipei block in the 2016 world League Group 3 finals, as both sides return to the competition this year.
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 18, 2017 - The city of Leon in Mexico’s state of Guanajuato will host this year’s Group 3 finals on June 17 and 18 to determine the champions of the group for the 2017 World League. The Group 3 competition will begin on June 2 and will end on June 11, with six teams from Europe, three from Asia, and one each from Africa, North America and South America.
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Latest VideosFacebookTwitterInstagramMedia GuidesGermany, who missed out on promotion last year when they fell to Slovenia in the Group 3 final at home in Frankfurt, are back again. Under the new leadership of Italian coach Andrea Giani (who last year was the coach of Slovenia), Germany are fielding the youngest squad in the group, though there’s some old-timers, including Olympians
Marcus Boehme on the outside and
Denys Kaliberda in the middle.
By contrast, 2016 Group 3 bronze medallists Greece have the oldest team on average, headed by opposite and captain
Mitar Tzourits.
Chinese Taipei’s outside hitter
Chien-Chen Chen will be heading the Asian squad in their quest to repeat their 2016 showing with another Final Four appearance.
On the wake of their historic Rio 2016 Olympic appearance, Mexico will host the Final Four in Leon. Eleven out of twelve players of their Rio 2016 squad are entered for this year’s World League, including their top two scorers there, opposite
Daniel Vargas and outside hitter
Carlos Guerra.
Venezuela, the sole representative of South America in the group, will count on the likes of
Jhonlenn Cruz Barreto Pena and
Willner Enrique Rivas Quijada to continue the legacy of skipper Kervin Pinerua who sadly passed away late last year.
In their third World League outing since joining the competition in 2015, Montenegro will be seeking a repeat of their 2015 Final Four appearance, when they lost at home in the final to China in five dramatic sets.
Vojin Cacic, who was the group’s best scorers of that 2015 competition will once again lead Montenegro, alongside the other top-scoring outside hitter of the country,
Marko Bojic.
Spain will be looking at bettering their ranking of 32 from last year, relying on the experience of
Sergio Noda,
Jorge Fernandez and
Fran Ruiz to guide the younger generation of players.
Qatar will make their second World League appearance this year, with the likes of
Renan Ribeiro and
Bojan Djukic ready to guide the team.
And Kazakhstan’s
Vitaliy Vorivodin alongside
Sergey Kuznetsov are lining up to lead , who are competing in the World League for the third time.
Tunisia, the only Africa side in Group 3, will rely be relying on
Bilel Ben Hassine alongside the two players who competed abroad this season,
Wassim Ben Tara of French champions Chaumont 52, and
Ismail Moalla of Fenerbahce Istanbul.
This year also sees two newcomers to the World League – Austria and Estonia.
Thomas Zass and
Alexander Berger, Austria’s top scorers when they claimed bronze at the 2016 European League, will be on hand again this year to lead the side.