Chinese Team Favored for World Championship Title

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 30, 2002

Chinese Team Favored for World Championship Title

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Although four out of the six teams in Group D predicted China as the eventual winners, the Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe declined however to label his side as the title contenders for 14th women's volleyball world championship starting on Friday.

"It's a great pleasure for me to lead the Chinese team, for the first time, in the world championships," Chen said at a pre-tournament press conference here on Thursday. "It's hard to predict the eventual winners now, but we'd spare no efforts for any of the coming matches," he said.

At the press conference, head coaches of the teams from Poland,Australia, Greece and Thailand all named China as the top favorites for the 19-day championship. Brazilian head coach MarcoAurelio Motta predicted Russia as the most favored side for the title.

Referring the prediction on the Chinese team, Chen looked very much low-profiled.

"I don't think we have the potential (for winning the championship)," he said. "Russia is a better side in terms of general strength and skills, as they keep most of the players from the Olympic Games in 2000.

"Such other teams as Cuba, Brazil and China had all undergone a major reshuffle since Sydney."

But Chen declined to predict Russia as the eventual winners.

"If they could play to their form, they are surely to be a better side than others. But considering the expectedly heated competition in the championship, anything could happen," he added.

Chen said earlier this month that his goal is to ensure a spot among the top four while trying to battle into the top three.

"After a meeting this morning, we'd decided to make every effort to do well in each match set for us," he said.

It seemed that cold food at their hotel had come out a problem for the Chinese since their arrival here Wednesday afternoon. The organizers promised that warm food would be available starting from Friday.

The first round competitions start on Friday in Leipzig and four other German cities - Muenster, Dresden, Riesa and Schwerin.

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

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 championship closes on September 15 in Berlin.

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