(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)Ghokan Gokgoz spiked and blocked brilliantly to power Turkey to their highest ever pedestal in volleyball when he reduced Cuba to look like novices in the first semifinal of the second FIVB Men's Under-23 World Championship on Sunday.
After their close second place finish in Group B the Turks handed the Cubans their first defeat of the tournament with a 25-19 25-18 27-25 lesson which the islanders would like to forget quickly at Al Nasr Club the venue for the semis and final. In the final on Monday at 7pm Turkey meet Russia the only unbeaten side in the tournament so far. The Russians beat Italy 25-20 25-18 27-25 in the second semifinal. Alexander Kimerov rammed into the Italian wall with 21 clean winners to spur the Russian brigade. Turk captain Baturalp Gungor said: "This is one more step but only a step I remind everyone as we have the major part of the mission still left." Turk coach the astute Emauele Zanini said: "For Turkey this is the biggest achievement in men's volleyball. We will celebrate for a short one hour now before we see the Russia-Italy game. They are both strong physically and mentally. From the first and third sets against Cuba we can learn a lot." "Technically we played up to the standards we did earlier in the tournament but our younger lot could not absorb the pressure against the well organised Turkish team. Our bench strength are a lot younger and we did not have extra hands for substitutions" said Cuban coach Rodolfo Luis Sanchez. In the first set Cuba trailed 16-20 after a short period of ascendency thanks to Alfonso Gavilan's steeply angled smashes but they caved in to the superior tactics of Zanini's lads led by Vahit Emre Savas at the net. Turkey shot to 19-14 with Savas coming off well again with super kills but killer blocks by allrounder Uriate Mestre showed that the islanders' armoury wasn't all empty. The Turks galvanised all their resources so well thereafter to romp home in the second set. South Korea concluded their pool A matches with their second win against hosts UAE 3-0 (25-17 25-18 25-16) at Al Nasr hall in the late Saturday night fixture. With the win the Koreans final group show read 2-3 to clinch a 5 to 8 standing slot and play against Brazil while UAE finished in sixth group position on 0-5.
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