Juantorena to semifinals of popularity contest

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, January 27, 2013 – Cuban-born Osmany Juantorena continues in competition for the 2012 Volleyball Globe Award, a contest organized by the popular website Volleyball.it, in Modena, Italy.

The three-time Most Valuable Player of the FIVB World Club Championship currently playing for Italy’s Trentino Diatec, has moved to the semifinal round among the wing-spikers after defeating Italian Simone Parody 516 votes to 431.

In the semifinal phase of the fans-voting round, to be held between January 28 and February 1, Juantorena faces Bulgaria’s Matey Kaziyski, his team mate with Trentino Diatec.

Meanwhile, Cuban Wilfredo Leon was eliminated by Poland’s Bartosz Kurek 348-284 in the electronic vote.

Volleyball Globe on the net is a volleyball prize yearly awarded to players who stood out more in the last calendar year, playing in a club of any national championship in the world, and with their national team.

The vote will take place in two phases.

The first will consist of a popular vote of the international Volleyball.it readers through polls published in a dedicated section of the website, with male and female players divided by role; later on, a subsequent vote of an enlarged jury, made by more than 100 volleyball journalists gathered worldwide, will have the leading value to the award of two absolute prizes.

The jury of journalists will be given a list of all male and female players included in the survey previously mentioned, asking them to indicate five absolute names in a ranking from 1st to 5th place, both for men and women.

The prize will be awarded to the best male player and the best female player in the world, and there will be partial awards for each male and female role (setter, opposite, spiker, middle blocker and libero).