Reigning European champions, the Netherlands, secured third place in Group B of the women’s event at the Liebherr World Championships in Moscow and thus the certainly of a top 12 finish, following a tense full distance victory over Spain on Thursday 27th May 2010.

They finished behind Singapore and Germany but ahead of Spain, the Czech Republic and the United States of America.

Thanks to two wins from Li Jiao and success for Li Jie against Shen Yanfei, with the score in the fixture level at two matches all, the Netherlands secured a hard fought victory.

Li Jiao beat both Shen Yanfei and Zhu Fang whilst for Spain, Zhu Fang defeated Li Jie and in the third match of the contest Galia Dvorak overcame Elena Timina.

Singapore secured first place in the group with the trio of Yu Meng Yu, Li Jia Wei and Sun Bei Bei recording a three matches to nil victory over the young United States outfit of Ariel Hsing, Natalie Sun and Lily Zhang; whilst Germany defeated the Czech Republic.

The Germans posted a three-one victory with Iveta Vacenovska being the one winner for the Czech Republic.

She defeated Sabine Winter in the opening match of the fixture but wins for Kristin Silbereisen against Dana Hadacova, Wu Jiaduo in opposition to Katerina Penkavova and Silbereisen against Iveta Vacenovska, German success was secured.

Success for Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands but there was no such fortune for the host nation in Group D of the Women’s Team event.

They needed to beat Romania in order to secure third place but they found their European visitors in no mood for charity.

The trio of Elizabeta Samara, Daniela Dodean and Bernadette Szocs defeated the Russian outfit of Polina Mikhaylova, Anna Tikhomirova and Olga Baranova by three matches to nil to gain third place.

Top place went to Japan followed by Chinese Taipei, both countries ending their first stage matches in impressive style.

Represented by Ai Fujinuma, Kasumi Ishikawa and Hiroko Fujii, Japan inflicted a three-nil win over Slovakia’s Viera Marcekova, Barbora Balazova and Sona Hudecova; whilst Chinese Taipei was in similar unforgiving mood.

They beat Belarus without the loss of an individual match.

Cheng I-Ching beat Viktoria Pavlovich, Huanmg Yi-Hua accounted for Veronika Pavlovich with Hsiung Nai-I concluding matters. She defeated Alena Dubkova.

Belarus finished in fourth place ahead of Russia and Slovakia.