China Attempts For First Gold At World Grand Prix Since 2003

2017 FIVB VOLLEYBALL WORLD GRAND PRIX

• Group 1
• July 7th – August 6th
• FIVB World Grand Prix Round 3
• Schedule/Results

China is among one of two teams, Japan, that have competed in all 25 editions of the World Grand Prix. In that time, the Chinese crew has won only one gold medal, when they finished undefeated in 2003. In addition, they have won five silver and three bronze medals.

The Chinese team has some momentum for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games as they took home the gold medal. Though they are carrying this momentum they have not had a great World Grand Prix performance so far.

As hosts of the finals, China earns an automatic bid to the finals no matter where they finish in the rankings. Overall, the Chinese finished in seventh place, just one spot away from actually qualifying. Since they have the automatic bid, they kick out the sixth place finisher which was Japan.

To start the competition off, China went 2-1 but struggled without their star player Zhu Ting, who sat out of week one due to fatigue. They continued their 2-1 trend, but this time with Ting back in full swing with the squad. Though, in week three, China finished at the bottom of their pool with a 1-2 record making their overall record 5-4.

Key Contributors

• Zhu Ting – After sitting out the first week of the competition due to fatigue, Ting has been back in action the following two weeks of play. In those two weeks, Ting has posted 103 points, the second most for the Chinese squad. 92 of those points have been kills with seven blocks and four aces.
• Xinyue Yuan – Yuan has the most points for the Chinese squad with 112, including 78 kills, 25 blocks and nine aces. Overall Yuan has put down 0.69 blocks per set.
• Xiangyu Gong – Gong has been another strong blocker for the Chinese squad putting down 15 so far in the World Grand Prix.

Roster

(* denotes participation on the 2016 Olympic team)

• Xinyue Yuan*
• Zhu Ting*
• Jing Li
• Jingwen Qian
• Yi Gao
• Xiangyu Gong*
• Linyu Diao
• Di Yao
• Changning Zhang*
• Xiaotong Liu*
• Yunli Xu*
• Yixin Zheng
• Yingying Li
• Chenyue Wang
• Li Lin*
• Xia Ding*
• Yuanyuan Wang
• Mengjie Wang
• Yanhan Liu
• Meizi Gong
• Yunlu Wang

Eight players from the Chinese Olympic roster made the cut for the World Grand Prix. The team’s shining star was Zhu Ting who was named the Olympic MVP and scored 179 points.

Schedule

China will begin their finals play with a tough Brazilian team on August 2 followed by the Netherlands on August 4.