FIVB World Grand Prix 2006

The FIVB World Grand Prix 2006 was the fourteenth edition of the annual women's volleyball tournament, which is the female equivalent of the Men's Volleyball World League.

The 2006 edition was played by twelve countries from August 16 to September 10, 2006 with the final round held in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Hosts Italy and the top five ranked teams after the preliminary rounds qualified for the last round. The tournament started with single round-robin action in Hong Kong, Poland and Japan. The global event kicked off on August 16 in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, where Dominican Republic, United States, Italy and Poland started the WGP Tournament.

The competition of the 2006 WGP lasted four weeks with a total number of 65 matches. During the first, second and third week: 18 matches per team were played with a total of 54 matches. Classification in the preliminary rounds was decided by the number of points gained by teams participating in the same group. The classification in the general ranking of the preliminary rounds of the 2006 WGP was decided by the total number of World Grand Prix Points (GPP) gained by the teams in the preliminary matches.

Qualification

Asia

*The top four Asian teams according to the FIVB World Rankings
**vbw|CHN
**vbw|JPN
**vbw|KOR
**vbw|THA

Europe

*European Qualification Tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan from July 26 to July 31, 2005

Group A

*2005-07-28
*2005-07-27

Third Place Match

*2005-07-31
**2006-08-19
**2006-08-19
**2006-08-16
**2006-08-26
**2006-08-26
**2006-08-26
**2006-09-02
**2006-09-02
**2006-09-02
*Wednesday September 6

Group B

*Friday September 8
*Sunday September 10 — Bronze Medal Match
*Sunday September 10 — Gold Medal Match

Final Ranking

1. vbw|BRA

2. vbw|RUS

3. vbw|ITA

4. vbw|CUB

5. vbw|CHN

6. vbw|JPN

7. vbw|USA

8. vbw|DOM

9. vbw|KOR

10. vbw|AZE

11. vbw|THA

12. vbw|POL

Individual Awards

*Most Valuable Player:
**flagathlete|Sheilla Castro|BRA
*Best Scorer:
**flagathlete|Ekaterina Gamova|RUS
*Best Spiker:
**flagathlete|Fabiana Claudino|BRA
*Best Blocker:
**flagathlete|Sara Anzanello|ITA
*Best Server:
**flagathlete|Nancy Carrillo|CUB
*Best Libero:
**flagathlete|Arlene Xavier|BRA
*Best Setter:
**flagathlete|Eleonora Lo Bianco|ITA

References

* [http://www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Competitions/Worldgrandprix/2006/Press/News.asp?sm=12 FIVB]
* [http://www.cev.lu/mmp/online/website/main_menu/volleyball/world_qualifications/163/184/9160/index_EN.html CEV Results]