World champion for China at long last

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 16, 2003

World champion for China at long last

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China embraces first World Cup title in 17 years (2)

China beat Japan within one hour to win the women's volleyball World Cup, but the road to the crown took the nation 17 years.

The Chinese women breezed past Japan in Osaka before a boisterous home crowd of 10,000 to clinch the title of the quadrennial tournament with a perfect record Saturday afternoon, winning all the 11 matches and conceding only four sets.

Chen Zhonghe, who took over as the national coach in 2001, said that "we are so excited. We know the win means very much for the country. Every player has a burning desire to win the title. They have been working hard for so many years."

Zhao Ruirui, who stands 1.97 meters and is believed the world's best player, said the win is also for the Chinese fans.

China embraces first World Cup title in 17 years

"We should give credit to the Chinese fans, they are always behind us in the years," Zhao told the Chinese national CCTV.

Gao Shenyang, vice president of the Chinese Volleyball Association (CVA), was jubilant with the victory, saying that "we have been waiting for the title for 17 years."

The wait is so hard for Gao, who worked in CVA since early 1990s.

"Every morning during these years, the first thing before opening my eyes, I always told myself: we can win back the world champion. And the dream finally comes true."

The wait is also agonizing to the nation and to win the title back in Japan is so special.

In 1981, the Chinese women spikers lifted the World Cup in Japan after beating the hosts in the final match, the first world title China had won in a team sport.

The women became household names and national heroines overnight and volleyball the national sport.

They swept the world volleyball in the next five years, winning five consecutive world champions in the World Championships (1982,1986), the Los Angeles Olympic Games (1984) and the World Cup (1985).

"It was a miracle and the wins were so important to China, which just opened its doors to the outside world," said Gao. "It's like rains in a desert. Everybody felt encouraged by the victories to work harder to build a prosperous country."

"The win reminds me of the first world title we won in 1981," said Zhang Rongfang, the only Chinese who won the world titles both as player and head coach.

Zhang is confident that the team has the potential to win the Athens Olympic Games and can even repeat the glorious days in early 1980s.

"Chen is a fabulous coach, the team is so young, and most importantly, 1.97-meter tall Zhao Ruirui is a special weapon, they can dominate the women's volleyball in the next decade."

"It's just amazing," said 36-year-old Beijing fan Wang Xuelin. "Volleyball used to be so important to everyone of us. The champion brought us back so many beautiful memories."

The Chinese team slumped to a 17-year title drought after its 1986 world championships, finishing disappointing 7th and 8th places respectively in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1994 world championships, which was regarded as "national disasters".

Now 17 years later, Wang said the team is different and so is the country.

"All the girls are smiling and confident, which tells the world that the country is also confident. Anyhow, China has become the world's number five biggest economy and much stronger than 17 years ago," Wang said.

Goes through wind and rain to see sunlight

Head coach Chen Zhonghe and his women spikers love to sing a popular lyric titled as "Sunlight always comes after wind and rain".

"Sunlight always comes after wind and rain, be confident that we will see the rainbow in the end. No matter how much wind and rain we go through, I will always be on your side," Chen sang softly the mandarin song in a Fujian accent after China stormed toits first World Cup title in 17 years with a clean sheet at the 2003 women's volleyball tournament.

"My players have been my companions through the rain and wind,"Chen said. "I could not achieve anything without them."

When the 46-year-old Chen, who had been trial horse and assistant coach of the Chinese women's team since 1979, took the helm in February, 2001, few people believed he could lead the teamto repeat the glory of the "Old Chinese Women's Volleyball Team", which had scored five straight victories in the World Cup, the World Championships and the Olympics in the 1980s.

"I was not a famous coach, and I had not made significant achievements as a player," Chen said.

"Quite a few people doubted my ability, some even said 'Is that possible that somebody who can not even speak standard mandarin can be a good coach?'" Chen recalled.

The critics raised their high-pitched tones when Chen began to rebuild the Chinese team by replacing star players such as Zhu Yunying and Qiu Aihua with newcomers Feng Kun, Yang Hao, Zhao Ruirui and Liu Ya'nan.

Against heavy pressure as his move was hotly disputed across the Chinese media, Chen did not back off but sticked to his choice of players and the young spikers did not let him down.

The fresh faces began to make their international fame late in 2001. Following a victory in the Asian Championship, China won the Grand Champions Cup with a crystal clean record in Japan in November.

The Chinese women went on to finish runners-up to Russia at the2002 Grand Prix finals, before trapping into the biggest trouble since the founding of the new squad.

In a strategy to avoid an early crash with Russia, which held a commanding record over China in 2002, at the World Championships in Germany, China lost some of the group matches intentionally, triggering off anger from the opponents as well as the Chinese fans.

The low-spirited Chinese women then lost to Italy in the semi-finals for a disappointing fourth place finish at the tournament.

"That was the worst time for our team," said Chen Zhonghe. "Fortunately we went through it shoulder to shoulder."

China lucked up going into the year of 2003. It scored its first ever Grand Prix title in Italy in August and retained the Asian championship title in Vietnam in October before completing a2003 hat-trick at the World Cup.

With the World Cup trophy and an Olympic ticket in hand, Chen and his players eyed the title at the Athens Games in 2004.

"People will have higher expectations from us in the Olympic Games, because we have won the World Cup," said Chen. "But we still have a lot to improve in order to achieve a good result at the Athens Games."

"We will come across more difficulties and obstacles in the future, but I'm sure we shall overcome them together."

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