OSAKA, Japan, 16 November 2003 — Asian champions China fended off a challenge from Japan to complete a clean sweep for their first major victory in 18 years by regaining the World Cup women’s volleyball title yesterday.
With a 25-18, 25-18, 25-13 win, the Chinese women finished with 11 straight victories, beating South American champions Brazil into second and world silver medalists the United States into third.
The three medalists qualified for the Athens Olympic Games next year.
“We made really a good result in this tournament and I think my players showed their best possible ability,” said Chinese coach Chen Zonghe.
It was their first major title since the Chinese women dominated the world by taking the 1984 Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles, the World Cup in 1981 and 1985, as well as the world championships in 1982 and 1986.
Feng Kun, who set up for most of the Chinese attacks, won the best setter award, while Zhao Ruirui received the best spiker award, scoring a total of 119 points out of her 194 shots.
“We felt pressure today, because we were playing on the Japanese home ground with a partisan crowd on their back. They played perfect,” said Zhao, who turned 22 at the beginning of the tournament.
China had to be satisfied with being runners-up to Cuba in the 1990 and 1998 worlds, 1991 World Cup and the 1996 Olympics.
But they proved their young talents have matured when they won their first World Grand Prix in August, led by skipper Feng Kun, Chen Jin and 197-centimeter (six feet six inches) tall Zhao Ruirui under the wing of Chen Zhonghe.
Brazil defeated world champions Italy 25-20, 25-12, 23-25, 25-19 to finish second, while the United States outgunned four-time defending champions Cuba 25-23, 25-18, 25-17 to win the last ticket for Athens available here.
“We had to focus on one game at the time, I didn’t talk anything about our situations,” said US coach Toshiaki Yoshida. “We were kind of up and down throughout this tournament, but today my players did great job. We knew that we were on the edge. I just thank my players. They played excellent.”
