PARIS — France left little question which group was the perfect within the Olympics males’s volleyball.
Les Bleus made it again to again Saturday when it swept Poland 25-19, 25-20, 25-23 to win the gold medal for the second straight Olympics.
About an hour after the match, with many of the pro-French crowd of 10,000-plus nonetheless cheering in South Paris Enviornment 1, the French received their gold medals, Poland received its silvers, and the USA, which defeated Italy on Friday within the third-place match, received its bronze medals.
Jean Patry led France, which gained three five-set matches on this match, with 14 kills, two blocks and an ace. Trevor Clevenot had 9 kills, a block and an ace. Barthelemy Chinenyeze had eight kills and Earvin Ngapeth had six kills, a block and an ace.
The French had an amazing home-court benefit in nearly as good a volleyball environment as may very well be imagined. They grew to become the primary group to repeat as Olympics champions in 36 years and simply the third total. The previous USSR gained in 1964 and 1968 and the USA did it in 1984 and 1988.
France went 6-0 within the match. It opened with a five-set victory over Serbia, swept Canada after which beat Slovenia in 5 to complete pool play. Within the quarterfinals it beat Germany in 5 earlier than sweeping Italy.
Bartocz Kurek led Poland, which superior by getting previous the USA in 5 units within the semifinals, with 9 kills and an ace. Wilfredo Leon had seven kills and two aces however the offensive star had 5 errors. Jakub Kochanowski had eight kills and a block and Norbert Huber had 4 kills, two blocks and an ace.