China confirm Olympic supremacy with Asian Cup title

Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, September 20, 2016 – A short month after dominating the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, powerhouse China underlined their supremacy over the SMM 5th AVC Cup for Women after demolishing Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-19 25-19 25-13) in a pulsating final showdown at the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium here on Tuesday.The scintillating win not only was a sweet revenge for the disappointing five-set loss to Kazakhstan in their pool preliminaries earlier, but also stretched China’s domination in the biennial top-flight tournament to four times.China captured their debut AVC Cup title in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand in 2008 and repeated the feat two years later at home in Taicang. The Chinese lost their title to Thailand in the 2012 edition in Almaty, Kazakhstan and reclaimed their crown in 2014 on home soil in Shenzhen.Against the up-and-coming Kazakhstan, successive two-time bronze medallists, China fielded a formidable line-up led by the 193cm-tall Zhang Changing and Gong Xiaoyu, both of whom competed on the gold-winning China team at the last month’s Rio Olympic Games. Also strengthening the indomitable giants were powerful attacker Li Jing, Yang Zhou and Zheng Yixin, while Kazakhstan sent strong starters led by ace spiker Katerina Tatko, Yekaterina Zhdanova and Kristina Anikonova.Young Gong Xiaoyu, 19, scored a match-high 21 points including 16 kills from 36 attempts for China. Zhang Changning added with 10 kill blocks. Yao Di contributed with 3 ace serves. Katerina Tatko led Kazakhstan with 6 points, all of them from her devastating spikes.”I would like to thank all of my players as they did a very good job today in the final match,” said China’s assistant coach Bao Zhuang on behalf of head coach Chen Youquan. “Kazakhstan tried hard to attack us, but they just came up with unforced mistakes to lose easy points. Our players played according …

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