Chinese Women's Volleyball Team Arrives in Leipzig

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 29, 2002

Chinese Women's Volleyball Team Arrives in Leipzig

The Chinese women's volleyball team arrived in Leipzig, eastern Germany on Wednesday, for the preliminary rounds of the 14th women's volleyball world championships starting on Friday.

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The Chinese women's volleyball team arrived in Leipzig, eastern Germany on Wednesday, for the preliminary rounds of the 14th women's volleyball world championships starting on Friday.

The Chinese coaches and players were present with bunches of flowers at the airport by enthusiastic local students and fans.

"We have a very young and completely new team for this year's world championships, but I am happy with their recent performance and progress they'd made," Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe said atthe airport.

Chen said he was optimistic of the team's chances in Germany, as pre-championships training had reinforced the team moral and made the squad more balanced.

Chen said his goal is to ensure a spot among the top four. "But a medal would of course make me happier," he said.

A field of 24 elite teams from across the world is arriving in Leipzig and four other German cities - Muenster, Dresden, Riesa and Schwerin -- for the first-round group competitions.

The teams are divided into four group of six for two preliminary rounds of single round-robin play to determine group rankings. China had been pooled into Group D, with Brazil, Australia, Thailand, Poland and Greece.

The top three teams from each first-round group, 12 teams in total, advance into the second round, which consists of three groups of four. The top two teams of each group and the two best third-ranked teams, eight teams in total, qualify for the next three phases of knockout competition - quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals.

The 19-day championships are expected to witness heated competitions among the world's top four teams - Russia, Cuba, China and Brazil. China plays Australia on Friday afternoon.

With the volleyball heritage of five-time world champions and Olympic gold-medalists former Soviet Union, Russia went on to win three times each in the World Cup and World Grand Prix tournaments.

Three-time winners in both world championships and Olympic Games, the Cubans also won four World Cup titles and two World Grand Prix tournaments to become one of the world's most successful women's volleyball squads.

The South American team of Brazil is known for their three-time title-winning performance in the annual World Grand Prix tournaments.

With two titles of world championships and as many World Cup tournaments, the Chinese took the Olympic gold medal in the 1984 Games. Having failed to win any of the eight World Grand Prix tournaments so far held, the Chinese came out winners at this year's Champions Cup meet in Japan.

With a fairly young and inexperienced squad for the 2002 championships, the Chinese had earlier announced a low-key target of reaching the top four in Germany. But volleyball experts have predicted that the Chinese are of the potential to win the silver medal.

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