International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) president and China's volleyball guru Wei Jizhong said yesterday he believes the country's women's team will be able to defend its Olympic title in Beijing.

He said reaching the semis would be a big hurdle for the troubled team, which suffered a series of humiliating defeats during a tune-up event last month, but it would be unstoppable after that because of its great record of performing on the big stage.

"The team can win the Olympic title provide it makes it into the semifinals," said Wei, who replaced Ruben Acosta as the federation president in June, although his official four-year term will start straight after the Beijing Games.

Wei has good reason to be confident considering a similar situation happened to Team China during the Athens Olympics.

The team, which also had a poor record in international competitions just ahead of the Athens Games, had a tough time in the group stage and lost to Cuba 3-2.

However, it managed to turn the tables in the semifinals, beating Cuba 3-2 and ending the Latin Americans' run of three consecutive titles from Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta 1996 and the Sydney Games in 2000. The team delivered a miracle by coming from two sets down to defeat Russia in the final.

In regard to the one victory from five games at the Grand Prix Finals last month in Japan, Wei said anxious Chinese fans should not take setbacks to heart.

"The results at the Grand Prix Finals are somewhat deceiving because no coach was willing to put out everything his or her team has when the Olympics is so close," Wei said.

"All of them are just trying to find the best line-up for the Olympics by sending the athletes onto the court. That might not be the real level (of competition)."

Wei backed the opinion of China's coach Chen Zhonghe.

"I do not care too much about the results of this tournament. It is more important for us to make adjustments accordingly so that we can play our best at the Olympic Games," Chen said in Japan after losing 3-1 to Brazil.

However, securing a semifinal place is by no means easy for China. Many fans initially thought the squad enjoyed a good draw by being grouped with Japan, Venezuela, Poland, Cuba and the US, but the resurgent Cubans who thrashed China 3-0 in Japan, and the fast-improving US, edging out China 3-2, have equal chances of topping the group.

Then FIVB will conduct another draw to decide quarterfinal match-ups which means China is likely to meet big teams early, such as world No 1 Brazil and beaten finalist in Athens, Russia.

"China, Cuba, Italy and Brazil are in the leading positions and I would not be surprised if one of these four teams wins the title," said Lang Ping, the Chinese coach of the US team.

(China Daily August 1, 2008)