China finishs tenth at men's volleyball World Cup

Home>>Sports

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 01, 2003

China finishs tenth at men's volleyball World Cup

China beat Tunisia 3-1 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday for their second victory and an tenth finish at the 2003 men's volleyball World Cup.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

China finishs tenth at men's volleyball World Cup

China beat Tunisia 3-1 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday for their second victory and an tenth finish at the 2003 men's volleyball World Cup.

Meanwhile, Serbia and Montenegro beat Italy 25-18, 21-25, 30-28and 25-22 in the Yoyogi Stadium to hand the World Cup title to Brazil before a later clash between the unbeaten world champions and Japan.

Tang Miao and Hu Song scored 22 and 20 points respectively to help the Chinese snap their six-match losing streak with the 25-17,24-26, 27-25 and 31-29 win.

"I am happy that our players were not affected by the previous losses," said Chinese head coach Di An'he. "I am satisfied with the fighting spirit they showed on the court."

"We have learned a lot from this World Cup," Di added. "The experience we got here will help us prepare for the Olympic qualifying tournament next May."

China, who had dropped nine of their ten matches before Sunday's action, started strongly when they raced to a 21-12 lead in the opening set and coasted to the victory.

The Asian runners-up continued their momentum early in the second set to go up 9-5, but Tunisia pulled it back at 12-12 through quality spiking of Hosni Karamosly. China rebuilt a 18-17lead and stayed in front at 24-23, but the Africans ran off three unanswered points to take the set.

China led all the way for a 24-20 advantage in the third set, but then made consecutive errors in attack to allow Tunisia back at 24-24. A Tang Miao kill sent China ahead again 26-25 before Marouan Fehri spiked to the net to close the set.

Tunisia squandered a 19-15 lead in the fourth to see China go up 23-22 and 24-23. After Tang spiked out to return the lead to Tunisia, China beat off five set points on back of powerful attacks from Shi Hairong and Hu Song to tie it at 29-29. Then Hu had a smash to award the Chinese a 30-29 advantage and Li Hang converted it by stuffing Noureddine Hfaiedh.

China reaped 11 blocks from blocking in the match, compared with three for Tunisia.

Tunisia shared a 2-9 record with China but settled for the 11th place at the 12-team tournament due to set ratio disadvantage.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Brazil, SCG power to seventh straight wins at World Cup

Chinese men claim first win at volleyball World Cup

Brazil, SCG power to seventh straight wins at World Cup

US needs to be fair with China: News analysis ( 5 Messages)

Mainland's serious warnings to Chen Shui-bian ( 10 Messages)

What's behind the resignation of Georgian president? ( 3 Messages)

Party meeting mulls China's economic work in 2004 ( 3 Messages)

US urged not to send wrong signal to Taiwan separatists ( 8 Messages)