The Atlanta 1996 Olympic champions will not be appearing at the men's World Championships in Poland later this year after they lost out to Bulgaria in qualifying pool one.

The Bulgarians topped the group in Opava with seven points, ahead of the Dutch and hosts, the Czech Republic.

In Poprad, there was further disappointment for the host nation as Slovakia could not book their place for the World Championships, finishing in a disappointing third place in their pool behind Ukraine and qualifiers Finland who won all their matches.

There was better news for the hosts in Ludwigsburg, as Germany followed Finland's lead and won three-from-three to seal their World Championship berth looking particularly impressive in their deciding match against Turkey.

"We are out to win in 2014," declared German head coach Vital Heynen afterwards.

"Anyone wishing to be crowned world champions must first win 15 matches.

"We have three behind us with 12 still to come.

"Let's see how far we progress."

Atlanta 1996 champions the Netherlands were the biggest name to miss out on qualification for the men's 2014 Volleyball World Championships ©Getty Images


























Over in Paris, despite losing their final pool match to Belgium, France will be heading to Poland after they qualified as the best second-placed side behind the Belgians, while 2010 World Championship bronze medallists Serbia finished ahead of Portugal in Niš to book their place.

Sixteen of the 24 teams have now been confirmed for the 2014 men's World Championships, which will run from September 3 to 21.

The six European qualifiers from this weekend join hosts Poland, Olympic and European champions Russia and European Championship runners-up Italy.

Australia, Iran, China and South Korea are the Asian qualifiers, while Argentina, Venezuela and reigning world champions Brazil will represent South America.

The eight remaining places will see three coming from Africa, with the qualifying tournaments set to be staged in February, while five teams will book their spots when the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) qualifying process concludes in July.

Meanwhile, the women's European qualifiers were also decided this weekend with seven teams securing World Championship places for the tournament in Italy, which takes place from September 23 to October 12.

In the qualifying tournament in Łódź, Belgium impressed as they upset a raucous home crowd to clinch qualification and deny Poland a World Championship place, emerging with a victory in the decisive match against the hosts.

"The level of this match was very high, but the pressure of the crowd was on them and it helped us a lot," said Belgium coach Gert Vande Broek.

"We deserved the qualification."

Russia's women will be looking to make it a hat-trick of World Championship wins in Italy later this year ©AFP/Getty Images





























In Ankara, Turkey made home advantage count as they topped their pool with three straight wins as did Bulgaria in Samokov when they saw off the challenge of Belarus to secure their World Championship ticket.

Croatia overcame the Netherlands 3-2 in a thrilling decider in Rovinj, to delight the home support, but the Dutch ladies had reason to celebrate as they were one of two teams to qualify as best runners-up.

The other nation to book their place on the plane to Italy by virtue of finishing as best runners-up were Serbia who finished behind a rampant Azerbaijan, who won all their matches in Baku.

Similar to the men's tournament, there are eight places still remaining for the women's World Championship, with six spots up for grabs in the NORCECA region with two available in Africa.

The African qualifiers will be decided next month as 14 teams will battle it out in two seven-team tournaments with each winner making it through.

The NORCECA representatives will see four teams qualify following tournaments in May and June, with the fifth and final spot being taken by the four group runners-up in a play-off competition in July.

Reigning champions Russia await the last remaining qualifiers along with hosts Italy, double Olympic champions Brazil, Germany, Argentina, China, Japan, Kazakhstan and Thailand.

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