The Russian women’s volleyball team is good enough to win gold at the Olympic Games in London, national team player Natalia Obmochaeva told RIA Novosti on Monday.
On Sunday the Russians, who are the reigning world champions, won the Olympic qualification tournament in Tokyo after a clean sweep of wins in seven matches, securing one of the four remaining tickets to London.
“We still need to have a good training camp, prepare, tighten up some parts of our game, and with this squad we can win,” Obmochaeva said.
Russia competed in Tokyo without spiker Tatiana Kosheleva and former European player of the year Lioubov Sokolova, both of whom are suffering from injury problems.
Their return could prove crucial to Russia’s Olympic chances, Obmochaeva said.
“They’re the leaders of the team. But nevertheless we got the result, won, and we’ll see how things progress.”
“If we have to, we’ll play without them too, but I would definitely like them to come.”
Obmochaeva was a member of the Russia team that won the world championship in 2010, when she was known as Natalia Goncharova, before marrying Russian men’s volleyball international Alexei Obmochaev in 2012.
