China uncertain after bad performance at 2011 FIVB Grand Prix – Volleyball News
The Chinese Women’s Volleyball squad recently appeared at the 2011 FIVB Grand Prix. In the first preliminary robin round, China started out with a shaky performance and finished third in the first week. Despite the advantage of familiar conditions in Louhe,
the Chinese team could not produce a good performance and dropped two matches. They played the second leg of the tournament in Quanzhou and again played as the host team. They managed to perform better in the second week and improved to the second position
in the pool standings.
They travelled to Hong Kong in the third week and won the stage. They obviously got better and better, but their group opponents in Hong Kong were not as well ranked as those from the first two legs. Hence, it was not a very convincing sign of improvement
for China. Moreover, they clawed their way to the final round in the top-8 teams of the tournament but failed to win any of their matches.
The final round of the World Grand Prix was staged in the Chinese town of Macau. The Chinese team was equipped with stupendous support of the home fans but failed to deal with the final round opponents. They lost to Serbia, Russia, Thailand and Italy to
finish 8th in front of their home fans.
Former Chinese player and 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medallist, Zhao Ruirui, kept in touch with her former side’s performance throughout the tournament. She regularly updated her views about the team on her blog. She said that it was a big surprise for her
to see China drop all four matches in the 2011 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix.
She hoped that China can learn from the experience in Macau and added that it is not terrible to lose games, but it’s terrible if you don’t know why you lose. Ruirui emphasized that the players explore the reason for the loss and improve on their flaws.
She said “It is a young team, but we can’t make an excuse out of it. We need to find out the real problem and try to work out the tactics suitable for ourselves. Otherwise, we will have nothing to rely on.”
The Chinese squad has bigger challenges ahead of them. They are in a dire need to capitalise on their height as well as use examples of the quick volleyball used by other Asian nations if they want to improve and get ahead of their rivals. Team China is
up for the 2012 London Olympic Games, next year. Currently, the youthful team have time to get things right before the opening of the international competition. However, they need to put in a lot of effort, in order to bounce back.
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