China's Feng Kun (C) and Liu Yanan attack Cuba's Nancy Carrillo de la Paz during their women's volleyball semi-final match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, August 26, 2004.  (Reuters)

Cuba's 12-year reign as Olympic women's volleyball champions finally ended, but they gave up their crown with dignity in a fighting five-set semi-final loss to World Cup champions China.

The Chinese will meet Russia in Saturday's gold medal match after the Russians came back from two sets down and saved seven match points against Brazil in the other semi-final.

Cuba, ranked six in the world, went down two sets to nil against third-ranked China, then fought back to level the match.

But, after a similar rally against world champions Italy in the quarter-finals, the Cubans finally ran out of steam and lost the tie-break fifth set 10-15.

The final score was 25-22, 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 15-10, ending Cuba's magnificent streak that began with gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games and carried through to Atlanta and Sydney.

Cuban coach Luis Felipe Calderon Biet said there would not be too much disappointment in Cuba over the streak ending, as fans back home understood the team was rebuilt after the Sydney Olympics.

"After Sydney, 80 to 90 percent of our team stopped playing so we have a lot of young athletes on the team. So in spite of not winning the gold medal, we are doing really well," Calderon Biet said.

"I think Cubans will be very happy with the result. Our girls are very happy to be among the four finalists."

For the Chinese team, who won the World Cup and World Grand Prix competitions last year, Saturday's final is a chance to win the nation's second-ever gold in the event following victory in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

However, they will come up against a steely Russian team who refused to be defeated against Brazil.

Russia looked to be on their way out of the gold medal race when facing five match points at 19-24 in the fourth set.

But, thanks to some rare errors from Brazilian star striker Marianne Steinbrecher and a never-say-die spirit instilled by veteran coach Nikolay Karpol, the Russians fought back to level at 24-24.

The Brazilians had another chance to win the match at 25-24, but again the Russians' nerves held the strongest.

The scenario was repeated yet again in the tie-break fifth set, when the Brazilians had their seventh match point at 14-13.

The Russians needed just one match point at 15-14 to claim a 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26, 16-14 victory in two hours and two minutes, and the Brazilans admitted afterwards they choked.

"I think it was nerves because we were so close to winning. It was just a matter of one point and we just couldn't take the stress," Brazilian blocker Walewska Oliveira said.

The famously hard-nosed Karpol, who is coaching a Russian or Soviet women's volleyball team for the sixth time at an Olympics, said he had expected nothing less than the attitude shown by his players on the court.

(Agencies)

reign : dominance or widespread influence（统治）

run out of: to exhaust the supply of（用完）