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Women's Olympic champions China will revive memories of their classic gold medal showdown with Russia when they return to play in Hong Kong in August.

The Chinese and Russians will be taking part in the first leg of the 2006 FIVB (Federation Internationale de Volleyball) World Grand Prix.

The other sides making up the four-team field are Thailand and Azerbaijan.

Organisers of the Hong Kong leg, the Volleyball Association of Hong Kong, announced yesterday that the teams would be fighting for a US$95,000  prize pot over three days of round-robin play at the Hong Kong Coliseum on August 18-20. Two matches will be played each day.

'China will definitely be sending their best players,' said the association's spokesman, Cheng King-leung. 'They have not notified us officially who will be coming, but I think the team [of 12] will include Feng Kun, Yang Hao, Zhou Suhong and Liu Yanan. Zhang Na and Zhang Ping are also very competent players.

'The team are now training in China and testing the abilities of new players in different positions, so they might be bringing new players, too.'

Part of their preparations will see them in Shenzhen on April 7 to play against Hong Kong's men's  team.

Cheng said Olympic silver medallists Russia had kept a low profile since the Athens Games in 2004.

'They were not allowed to participate in the FIVB World Grand Prix in 2005 because they failed to qualify,' he said.

China pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in volleyball history in the gold medal match against the Russians in Athens.

The first rounds of games of the World Grand Prix will be held concurrently in Hong Kong, Japan and Poland. Other participating countries include Japan, Cuba, Brazil, Korea, Poland, the US, Italy and the Dominican Republic.

After playing in Hong Kong, China will head to Macau on August 25-27 to play against Brazil, the US and the Dominican Republic for week two of the grand prix. They will then go to Ningbo in China on September 1-3 for matches against Cuba, Poland and Azerbaijan.

The top five teams will play in the finals, to be held in Reggio Calabria in Italy from September 6-10.



Olympic foes set for HK rematch