Head of Men's Volleyball Praised Despite Losing Olympic BidAlthough the Chinese men's volleyball team crashed to another major defeat in their attempt to manage an Olympic berth, head coach Wang Jiawei again escaped criticism, according to Chinadaily."In evaluating Wang's job, the benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom. But my attitude to Wang is generally positive,'' Gao Shenyang, vice-director of the Chinese Volleyball Association (CVA), said recently. There is an Chinese saying which means "Succeed and you will be the king, be defeated and you will the victim,'' but Gao has a different view. "In my opinion, the loser is not nobody. And win or lose, Wang has proved to be somebody to give up excellent living conditions abroad and return to coaching.'' When Wang came back in 1996, he had earned more coaching in Japan than Lang Ping, who then was coaching in Italy after retiring as captain of Chinese women's volleyball, said Gao. During his four-year-term in Japan, Wang demonstrated superb coaching abilities and led the Chinese team to win titles at the 1997 Asian Championships, the 1998 Asian Games and the 1999 Asian Championships. "It is really an outstanding achievement to reap three consecutive Asian crowns, and maybe this is best record by one coach in Asia,'' Gao said. However, Wang made two crucial mistakes, which cost the Chinese team dearly, Gao said. "First, Wang should have started a earlier team reshuffle to bring fresh strength to the team. And secondly, Wang has not done enough to drive the team forward,'' Gao said. With the accomplishments achieved from 1997-99 in hand, Wang relied too much on the old squad, and paid less attention to attracting new strength, Gao said. Wang underestimated the importance of team administration, preferring to leave the task of digging team enthusiasm to players themselves, he added. |
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