Türkiye book first Olympic ticket to Paris

It will be the third time Türkiye compete at the Olympic Games. At their debut at London 2012, they stopped short of making the quarterfinals, but progressed to the last eight two years ago, at Tokyo 2020.

On Saturday, the Turks recovered from losing the first set to hosts Japan in their capital and turned the match around to a 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-12) win, handing the opponents their first defeat of the tournament.

Japan took the early lead and did not let go through the end of the first set. They stayed well in control of the second until 22-19, after which the Europeans went on a six-point run to level the match. A similar story unveiled in set three. Japan were the first to reach set point at 24-22, but Türkiye produced a four-point streak, crowned by two consecutive kills from Hande Baladin for the set. The fourth set was a one-sided affair as Türkiye cruised to a comfortable 25-12 close on a Zehra Gunes kill block for the match winner.

While Japan showed more accuracy on the court (17-25 in unforced errors) and a slightly better blocking effort (9-8 in stuffs), Türkiye emphatically outplayed the home team in offence (65-48 in attack kills) and in serving (8-2 in aces). Opposite Melissa Vargas led the scorers with 22 points, including two aces and a kill block. Outside hitter Hande Baladin added another 19, while middle blocker and captain Eda Erdem and outside Ilkin Aydin finished with 13 points apiece. Captain Sarina Koga was Japan’s most prolific player on 15 points.