In the final of the 2006 Women's Volleyball World Championships,
Olympic runners-up Russia came back from one set down to beat
Brazil 3-2 and claim the title in Osaka, Japan, on Thursday. The
Russians won 15-25, 25-23, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13 to take the gold for
the first time since 1990.
Olympic and World Cup champions China finished the tournament in
fifth place after defeating hosts Japan. The Chinese won in
straight sets 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.
Xu Yunli's windmill smash opened the game in the first set and
China took an early advantage with several front row attacks,
leading 8-1 at the first technical timeout. But the Japanese played
cunningly with more rotations and a faster playing rhythm to cut
the deficit to 20-18. It was the block points and attacking shots
that helped China seal the first set 25-19.
Japan played strongly in the second set with aggressive
counter-attacks taking the game to a tense 21-21 until their
unforced spike errors pushed China to win the set 25-22.
The early third set also witnessed a seesaw battle between the two
Asian squads. Japan fell behind 19-24 and saved three match points,
but China never looked back as Wang Yimei sealed the victory for
China with a powerful kill.
Ochiai Shuka of Japan scored a game-high 17 points, 16 from
spikes, while Wang Yimei scored 14 points to lead China in the
win.
Osaka, Japan, once was a hallowed ground for China's women
volleyball as former Chinese teams had won the world cup title
twice there, in 1981 and 2003 respectively. But with 7 wins and 4
losses on aggregate, China finally clinched the fifth place of the
2006 tournament. Having lost to Germany and the Netherlands in the
group games, China staggered into the second phase with the help of
the US, who beat Germany at the last moment. Had Germany won, China
would have been ousted from the last eight.
After Wang Yimei's winning spike during the game between China
and Japan, Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe sighed, "Finally, it's
over."
Chen is famed for his genteel and cultured behavior as a coach.
Even after the loss to Germany he smiled to sooth captain Feng Kun
who cried at the press conference and said, "Please smile, you can
stand it. I smiled and you should smile." But when China were upset
by the Netherlands in the last group match, he flew into a fury at
the press conference.
China used to be a world powerhouse in the 1980s and 90s under
the philosophy of "a mix of tall and fast, combination of
flexibility and variety" suggested by the former national team
coach Yuan Weimin. However, no constant supply of bright young
players and bad conservative tactics pulled China out of the first
class. No wonder that Germany's Italian head coach Giovanni
Guidetti said his team were familiar with the Chinese girls as well
as their plays.
Commenting on not being able to enter the last four, Chen said
this was down to injury problems among veteran players and the
unreasonable grouping arrangement of the tournament. "The strong
teams clashed at the early phase as we had so many difficulties in
the beginning."
Despite the lackluster results, Chen still got a "consolation
prize": the potential 2008 Olympics star, Wang Yimei. The world
championship rookie was the second best scorer with 202 points and
also second best in spikes and ninth in serves.
It was the performances by Wang along with another fresh hand,
Xu Yunli, that reanimated coach Chen Zhonghe and led him to say, "I
believe we can renew the glorious age in 2008."
In other games, Serbia and Montenegro beat Italy to win third
place whilst Cuba finished in seventh place after defeating the
Netherlands in straight sets. After making a promising start to the
tournament, Chinese Taipei ended in 12th place as they were
defeated 25-15, 25-19, 25-15.
In the individual awards, Japan's Yoshie Takeshita took the Most
Valuable Player award after scooping the media vote and the vote of
the FIVB's Control Committee.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao November 17, 2006)
