China volleyball goes all out.
Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Min Yang
The volleyball qualifying tournament for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will be held between September and October this year. Women’s Volleyball Olympic Qualifiers will be held in China, Japan and Poland from September 16th to 24th. Men’s Volleyball Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be held in China, Japan and Brazil from September 30th to October 8th, with the specific host cities to be determined. This means that China Men’s Volleyball Team and China Women’s Volleyball Team will attack the Olympic tickets at home. At the same time, China Volleyball Association took the initiative to successfully operate Zhang Jingyin, the attacking core of China Men’s Volleyball Team, to the Polish Super League, one of the three top leagues in the world. China women’s volleyball team is also stepping up its preparations, and Zhu Ting, the main attacker who has not yet decided when to return to the team, has won the seventh MVP title since joining the Italian women’s volleyball team.
China women’s volleyball team or the same group as Brazil and the United States.
The FIVB has reformed the method of producing Olympic qualification, instead of deciding the seats except the host through the world group qualification and intercontinental qualification, it has adopted the way of combining the world group qualification with the world ranking. Take the women’s volleyball team as an example. A total of 12 teams will participate in the women’s volleyball event of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Except for the French women’s volleyball team, 11 qualifications will be divided into two stages. The first stage is the Olympic qualifier in September, and six tickets will be decided; The remaining five seats will be allocated according to the world ranking after the 2024 World Women’s Volleyball League.
A total of 24 teams competed for 6 tickets for the Paris Olympic Games in the women’s volleyball Olympic qualifying tournament in September. Except for China, Japanese and Polish women’s volleyball teams, the other 21 teams will draw lots according to the world ranking and snake arrangement principle. Together with the host, there will be a total of 8 teams in each group to compete in a single round robin, and the top two teams in each group will go straight to Paris for the first time.
Although the draw ceremony of the FIVB Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be held on the 17th of this month, the grouping situation has basically surfaced. China women’s volleyball team is classified into Group A, and the opponents in the same group are likely to be Brazilian women’s volleyball team, American women’s volleyball team, German women’s volleyball team, Canadian women’s volleyball team, Colombian women’s volleyball team, Mexican women’s volleyball team and Peruvian women’s volleyball team. Group B includes Japanese, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Thai, Czech, Argentine and Slovenian women’s volleyball teams. Group C includes: Poland, Serbia, Dominica, Belgium, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, Korea and Ukraine.
Despite having the advantage of playing at home in the Olympic qualifiers in September, according to the above grouping situation, China women’s volleyball team must go all out to have a chance to go straight to Paris in the first time, because Brazil women’s volleyball team and American women’s volleyball team are two close competitors. Last year, the new China Women’s Volleyball Team did not have the upper hand in the international arena. In the World Women’s Volleyball League held from May to July this year, China Women’s Volleyball Team will also have the opportunity to play against these two teams in the sub-matches, which is also the best opportunity for the teams to find out their opponents before the Olympic qualifiers.
In terms of men’s volleyball in China, according to the world ranking and snake arrangement principle, the opponents in the same group are basically determined, including Polish men’s volleyball, Iranian men’s volleyball, Serbian men’s volleyball, Ukrainian men’s volleyball, German men’s volleyball, Czech men’s volleyball and Bulgarian men’s volleyball. In terms of comprehensive strength, China men’s volleyball team is not at the top of the group.
Olympic Qualifiers and Hangzhou Asian Games "Back to Back"
During the Tokyo Olympic cycle, China women’s volleyball team was qualified for the World Group Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Beilun, Ningbo. China men’s volleyball team came second in the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament held in Jiangmen, and missed the Olympic Games. This year, although they are also sitting at home, it is more difficult for both men’s volleyball team and women’s volleyball team to get tickets for the Olympic Games than in the previous cycle. First of all, in terms of the number and strength of opponents, four years ago, a group of four teams competed for the first place in the Olympic Games. Now, eight teams have played the top two in seven single-cycle competitions, which puts higher demands on the physical fitness and energy of the participating teams.
Secondly, the Olympic qualifiers of men’s and women’s volleyball teams overlap with the Asian Games held from September 23rd to October 8th, which means that China men’s volleyball team and China women’s volleyball team will participate in the qualifiers and the Asian Games "back to back". In the second half of China women’s volleyball qualifying tournament, the Asian Games in Hangzhou has already started. Regardless of whether it can successfully compete for the Olympic Games, the whole team must rush to Hangzhou to fight for the gold medal in the Asian Games. Cai Bin, head coach of China women’s volleyball team, talked about this year’s goal before the closed training in February, that is, to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games in the first time and to win the gold medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games. It is a big test for the young China women’s volleyball team to complete the two competition tasks seamlessly. China men’s volleyball team also needs continuous rotation, but the order of the two competition tasks is just the opposite to that of China women’s volleyball team. The men’s volleyball team rushed to the Olympic qualifiers after attending the Hangzhou Asian Games.
China men and women volleyball main attack
"Shine" in Europe
At present, China Men’s Volleyball Team and China Women’s Volleyball Team have closed training in Zhangzhou, Fujian and Beilun, Ningbo, Zhejiang respectively. It is worth mentioning that Guangdong athletes are selected in the training lists of the two national brands, and the men’s volleyball teams include Wang Hebin and Chen Jiajie; The women’s volleyball team has Wang Yifan.
Several leading men’s volleyball players were temporarily absent from training because of playing abroad, including 23-year-old attacking core Zhang Jingyin. Under the operation of China Volleyball Association, Zhang Jingyin successfully went abroad and joined the Polish Super League, one of the three top leagues in the world. In February of this year, Zhang Jingyin wore the No.22 jersey to play for the Gdansk Club, which is in the middle of the league. On March 3rd, the Gdansk men’s volleyball team won 3-1 in the 26th round of the league, and Zhang Jingyin scored 24 points as a substitute, winning the MVP for the first time. In yesterday’s game, he played five innings as a substitute and contributed 18 points. Zhang Jingyin said that she gained a lot after joining the Gdansk Men’s Volleyball Club, especially improving her passing ability. Zhang Jingyin plans to return to China in May, when he will return to China Men’s Volleyball Team to prepare for the World Men’s Volleyball League.
In the 22nd round of Serie A competition held yesterday, the former China Women’s Volleyball Club, which focused on Zhu Ting, won ten consecutive victories, and Zhu Ting, who contributed 15 points, was elected as the MVP in a single game. Before joining Serie A, Zhu Ting was a world-famous MVP "harvester". Last October, Zhu Ting joined Scandi Qi Women’s Volleyball Club, and the cooperation period between the two sides was one season. After the start of the season, Zhu Ting won the league single MVP； three times; While representing the club in the Europa League, she won two MVP titles. Zhu Ting was also selected as the MVP of Serie A in December last year. Therefore, the single MVP she won yesterday is the seventh MVP title since she joined Serie A.
Source: Guangzhou Daily
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