Paris, France – Gold medal hopefuls Bosnia on Saturday booked their place in the semi-finals of the Paris Paralympics men’s sitting volleyball semi-finals, while Egypt kept their hopes of reaching the last four alive by beating hosts France.
Bosnia, the two-time Paralympic champions in the event, ensured their progression to the semi-finals with a thrilling 3-2 win against Kazakhstan.
Since first qualifying for the Paralympics in 2000, Bosnia have never finished outside of the podium and they made a big move to maintaining that record when they sealed their second Pool A win in as many matches.
“We hoped this was going to be much easier,” said Bosnia’s Stevan Crnobrnja.
“In the end, we won the game through our will to win.”
The Bosnians won a closely-contested first set before racing into a 2-0 lead with a dominant performance in the second.
However, Kazakhstan fought back to level matters and force a decider against the European champions.
Bosnia showed their mettle by claiming a 15-8 victory in the fifth set and became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.
Later in the same pool, Egypt raced to a straight-sets win against France to secure their first win of the tournament.
Despite a partisan 3,800 fans packed into the Paris North Arena, France were unable to trouble the Egyptians as they fell to back-to-back defeats.
Egypt and Kazakhstan will face off on Monday with the winner set for a place in the semis, while Bosnia will seek to maintain their 100 percent record when they play France.
Reigning champions Iran, featuring the towering Morteza Mehrzad, return to action on Sunday when they meet Brazil in Pool B.
