Japan suffers rare loss against South Korea

Japan suffered its first loss of the women's Olympic qualifying tournament, going down to South Korea 3-1 on Wednesday.

Take this: Saori Kimura spikes the ball during Japan's Olympic qualifying match against South Korea on Wednesday. KYODO

Japan, which has nine points from four games to sit in second place behind Russia, had not lost to South Korea since October 2008. Japan dropped the first set 18-25 before bouncing back to take the second 25-22 thanks to Saori Kimura, who led Japan with 21 points for the night.

But the Koreans again grabbed the lead by capturing the third set 25-17, and won the last set 25-13 to wrap up the victory. South Korea is fourth on six points with a pair of wins and defeats.

Earlier, three-time Olympic champion Cuba lost 25-21, 25-23, 25-19 to Serbia.

The defeat left the Cubans with three points from four games in danger of missing the Games for the first time since 1988. Serbia improved to nine points.

Russia remained perfect in four games with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-9 win over Peru, which has three points from its lone win. Russia was led by its star Ekaterina Gamova, who scored 15 points.

In Wednesday's other match, Thailand improved to 2-2 in the tournament with a 25-16, 25-18 win over winless Taiwan.

Rare win: South Korea celebrates its victory over Japan on Wednesday. FIVB

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