By Tom Degun

July 18 - Reigning Paralympic champions Iran claimed victory in the men’s competition at the World Sitting Volleyball Championships at the University of Central Oklahoma with a five sets victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina while China won the women’s gold after defeating hosts United States in the final.



The competition, which served as a qualifier for the sitting volleyball competition at the London 2012 Paralympics, saw 36 teams representing 26 countries battling it out for a medal spot that would secure them a Paralympic berth in just over two years time.

In the men’s final, Iran went a set up before Bosnia stormed back to win the fourth set and force the decisive fifth frame.

However, Iran proved too strong for Bosnia in the climax of the match to claim the gold medal and their coach Hadi Razee admitted his delight at securing the victory.

Razee said: "It feels good to win after working so long towards it.

"Our players thought it was over after two sets, and they let up.

"I told them it takes 25 points to win, not 24.

"That’s the beauty of this sport."

By claiming gold and silver, both teams have qualified for London 2012 where they will be joined by Egypt, who qualified for the Games by winning bronze in the third place match by defeating Russia.

In the women’s final China, who were making their first tournament appearance since the winning gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, defeated the US in straight sets in a rather one-sided encounter.

However, US coach Bill Hamiter stated that he was satisfied with the team’s accomplishments at their training base and delighted to have qualified for the London 2012 Paralympics by securing a medal.

Hamiter said: "We achieved our primary goal of qualifying for the Paralympics this week.

"I thought our team played pretty well against China, but they played pretty good too.

"We were able to do some things we wanted to do while we were in system."

US star Nichole Millage stated that the team will be looking for revenge at the London 2012 Paralympics.

She said: "We’ll focus on training for the next two years.

"It’s been a long road to get to this point.

"We’ll see them in London."

The Ukrainian women’s team secured the third women’s qualifying spot for London 2012 by defeating the Netherlands in the third place playoff. 

Britain had a bad time in Oklahoma as the men won one match and lost five while the women lost all five of their games.

Fortunately, both qualify for London 2012 by virtue of being hosts.

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