The public were able to vote for either a bear, robot or tiger on the official tournament website.

The vote was open from August 16 until September 3.

The tiger received 45.9 per cent of the vote, with the bear finishing second with 41.9 per cent and the robot on 12.2.

Organisers ruled that the mascot must be associated with both the sport and the country.

The Russian Volleyball Federation said that tigers are agile, brave animals with a fantastic leap.

A Siberian tiger, also known as an Amur tiger, was chosen due to ongoing efforts in Russia to preserve the population of the animal.

"The mascot is an integral part of any major sporting event, the organizers devote a lot of time and effort to making the character positive and recognisable, remembered for a long time by all guests and participants," said Roman Stanislavov, director general of the Organising Committee.

"In the process, many options were developed - among them were fairy-tale characters, animals, and even volleyball attributes.

"As a result, the fans were presented with three candidates for voting, each in its own way unique and illustrating national characteristics and our favourite sport.

"The winner - Tiger - has strong associations with Russia, because many specialists are working on the preservation of the Amur tiger population in the Far East.

"Our Talisman Tiger is strong, agile, jumpy, he plays volleyball perfectly and will be able to show his class on the court.

"I am sure that he will become a bright symbol of the World Championship and will delight all spectators with his positive."

Organisers said the mascot design was guided by the corporate identity and the World Championship of "Volleyball electrifies".

The design features the stripes of the tiger are made in the form of lightning, as a result, which is claimed will show the mascot’s endless energy.

The mascot's name will be announced at a later date.

The World Championships are due to take place from August 26 to September 11 next year, with 24 teams set to compete across 10 host cities.

Russia were permitted to keep the World Championships in June, after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted it would be "legally and practically impossible" to strip the nation of the event.

The FIVB claimed WADA had acknowledged it would not be possible to move the tournament from Russia and reassign it to another country to comply with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision in the long-running doping scandal.

Under the terms of the range of punishments imposed on Russia by WADA and partially upheld by the CAS, the country cannot host major events - defined as World Championships by the global anti-doping watchdog - for the two-year period in which they apply.

The ruling tells Federations to strip Russia of major events due to be held in the nation until December 2022 "unless it is legally or practically impossible to do so".