China wins Women’s World Cup
CHINA eased past Argentina 3-0 at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup in Osaka, Japan, yesterday to finish its campaign with a perfect 11-0 record, having already being crowned the winner a day earlier.
President Xi Jinping was among the first to send a congratulatory message to the team.
The Chinese team has successfully defended its World Cup crown with 11 straight victories, winning great honors for the country and the Chinese people, Xi said.
The players didn’t fear any opponents and fought hard with both style and skills, demonstrating superb teamwork and a hardworking spirit, he added.
“Therefore I want to extend my warm congratulations and sincere greetings to you,” the president said.
Despite the 3-0 win over Serbia on Saturday that secured the title, China, the 2015 World Cup winner and the 2016 Olympic champion, retained its regular starters, with Gong Xiangyu scoring a game-high 15 points. Yuan Xinyue added 13 in the 25-17, 25-14, 25-12 victory, followed by Zhu Ting with 12 points. Lucia Fresco had a team-high 13 points for Argentina.
“Every one in our team has made progress and we have greater teamwork. It’s better for us when we have more than one strong attacking points,” the team’s leading scorer Zhu told Xinhua.
Fresco and Elina Rodriguez were red-hot from the beginning and helped Argentina head into the second technical timeout 16-14 ahead. China shook off a sluggish start and tied the game 16-16 with an ace from Ding Xia and wrapped up the set 25-17 with 8-0 run after 17-17.
The sequence was repeated after China led the South American side 17-14 in the second set as Yuan, Gong and Zhang Changning spurred another 8-0 run in the closing minutes for a 25-14 win.
Zhu contributed three kill blocks to put China 7-5 ahead in the third set and the solid blocking by Yan Ni and Gong crashed the Argentine attackers as China won 12 consecutive points for a 19-5 lead before the starters were substituted one after another to huge cheers from the audience and later dived into the court to celebrate as China claimed the final victory.
Even coach Lang Ping, who had maintained a perfect composure throughout the tournament, couldn’t hold back her tears while facing the cameras in the mixed zone. “This is our last match this year, and I am too excited thinking about the holidays,” the former United States head coach joked.
The US claimed the silver and Russia the bronze. China’s captain Zhu Ting was named MVP of the tournament.
In the aftermath of China’s victory, International Federation de Volleyball president Ary S Graca predicted that the newly-crowned World Cup champion will be “a big favorite” to win the women’s volleyball gold medal at next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games .
“China will be in the final for sure,” he said. “Each day is another day, a lot of things could happen, but I can say 70 percent the big favorite is China.”
Graca attributed China’s success to the new training regime Lang brought to the team when she took the helm in 2013.
“Lang Ping was an excellent player and now she is an excellent coach. Before coming back to China, she spent 10 years in the US. So she brought with her some assistants, many for physical preparations, and completely changed the way preparations are done in Asia, not only China,” Graca said.
(Xinhua)