29.09 Russian Mens Volleyball Team Matches Womens Victory for Euro Title
MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) Russias mens volleyball team for the first time won the European championship on Sunday, two weeks after the countrys womens team won the title.
The mens team beat Italy for the top spot at the final match in Copenhagen. While their Soviet predecessors had won the title 12 times, this was the first time the Russian Federations mens team clinched the European gold.
The Russian womens team beat Germany on September 15 for the top European title, their fifth in the past two decades.
The womens victory came little more than a year after coach Sergei Ovchinnikov committed suicide in the aftermath of a surprise defeat for the team in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games.
