China avoids sitting volleyball shock

“All the sets were really close so it was a hard match, but I am confident we can win the gold."

Favourites China and USA will contest the women’s sitting volleyball final on Friday – but only after Netherlands came close to a huge semi-final shock.

The Dutch led reigning champions China twice before eventually going down 3-2 (17-25, 25-14, 13-25, 25-16, 15-11) in an epic encounter.

“All the sets were really close so it was a hard match, but I am confident we can win the gold,” China’s Su Li Mei said.

“We will have a meeting to analyse what didn't go well today to make sure we are confident and ready for the final.”

USA had fewer problems, beating Ukraine 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-19), and having tested China in the pool match between the teams before going down to a 3-1 defeat, are now looking to go one better than their silver medal in Beijing 2008.

“We are looking to get gold and only gold,” USA’s Kendra Lancaster said.

“Before we came here, the only thing we want is gold and nothing else.”

“In the final, we will look to minimise our errors especially in service as that let us down the last time we played against China. If we minimise our errors and play like we know we can then we can hopefully win.”

In the men’s competition, favourites Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina progressed smoothly through to the last four.

Bosnia beat Egypt in straight sets (25-17, 25-16, 25-22), while current champions Iran brushed aside Great Britain in similar fashion.

In the other matches, Russia beat Brazil 3-2 (18-25, 25-15, 25-15, 19-25, 15-8), and

Germany produced a stunning comeback to recover from 2-0 down to beat China 3-2 (19-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19, 15-10).