Chinese Women's Volleyball Team Leave for World Championships

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 22, 2002

Chinese Women's Volleyball Team Leave for World Championships

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The Chinese national women's volleyball team left Beijing Thursday for the Netherlands, for the final stage of their preparations for the 14th world women's volleyball championships slated to begin eight days later in Germany.

The Chinese will take their last pre-championships training sessions in the Netherlands, where they are to play four warm-up matches against the Dutch national side. They are scheduled to arrive in Leipzig, Germany, on August 28 for their opening Group Dmatch against Australia two days later.

After finishing runners-up to Russia in the World Grand Prix Finals in Hong Kong earlier this month, the Chinese took an 18-dayclose-door training session in nearby port city of Tianjin.

To the surprise of many, the Chinese Volleyball Association (CVA) announced on Sunday an entirely new line-up for the world championships, leaving veteran spiker Wu Yongmei and recruit Zhang Ping behind. The bold reshuffle of the national team is understood to aim at improving the first passing, which had long been foiled by jump-serving Russians, Cubans and Brazilians.

The reshuffle, however, resulted in a squad without any of veteran players. None of the re-grouped squad had played in any previous world championships.

"Our far-reaching goal is neither the GP Finals nor the world championships. The Athens Olympic Games are what is in our mind," said Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe, when interviewed for the new line-up.

Although the CVA had not set any target for the team, Chen has told reporters on Sunday that he wishes his team able to be among the top four but he would be very happy if they could take a position on the podium.

The former Soviet Union came out the most successful team in the world championships, winning five times, followed by Cuba and Japan with three victories each. China won the championships twice -- in 1982 and 1986.

Famed Russian coach Nikola Karpol has predicted that the 2002 world championships final would be played by Russia and Cuba. "I believe Cuba and Russia, based on world rankings, are still the best two teams in the world," he said earlier this month.

"China do not have much experience, but they are going to be a very strong team (in Germany)," he added.

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