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Chinese Zhao secures Olympic berth in women's volleyball
Center blocker Zhao Ruirui, recovering from a leg injury though, has secured a berth with the Chinese women's volleyball team to the Athens Olympics, head coach Chen Zhonghe said on Saturday. "Zhao will surely play in the Athens Olympics," Chen told Xinhua via telephone from Poland. Zhao, sidelined for more than four months after fracturing her right leg in training in late March, made her comeback in the World Cup winners' 3-0 warm-up win over Poland on Wednesday. With only a week to go before the Olympics, Chen finally decided to take Zhao to Athens and send veteran Li Yan, who had been training with the team in the last month, back home. "Zhao has been recovering faster and better than I expected," Chen said. "But she is still on the way to her best." "I will be very happy if she can play to 70 to 80 percent of her best at the knock-out stage of the Olympics," Chen added. The Chinese team, aiming to win its first Olympic gold medal since 1984, has to finish top four in preliminary pool B which also includes the United States, Russia, Cuba, Germany and the Dominican Republic, to qualify for the quarter-finals. China had won 28 straight victories in 2002 and 2003 with the 1. 96-meter Zhao, including the Grand Prix and the World Cup titles, but lost four games in 2004 without her and dropped to a disappointing fifth place at the 2004 World Grand Prix Finals last week. Chen's team will leave Poland for Athens on Sunday night. |
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