China suffered one of their heaviest defeats in international volleyball after finishing eighth out of eight teams in the World Grand Prix finals in Macau yesterday.
They lost all four of their matches in the final, including a 25-13, 14-25, 22-25, 25-16, 15-10 defeat to Italy in the play-off for seventh place in front of a partisan crowd of 2,900 at the East Asian Games Dome.
Once the world's top power with two Olympic gold medals under their belts (1984 and 2004), China were already last in the group stage of the US$550,000 finals, having lost to Serbia, Russia and Thailand before the play-off.
And finishing in eighth position is also their poorest result since China joined the World Grand Prix set up in 1993. China were the champions in 2003. They also finished in the top three on seven occasions and were fifth five other times.
Yu Juemin, who last year became China's third national coach in three years, was disappointed with the result. 'The team are undergoing a transition period with most of the veterans having retired,' he said.
'We added four new faces into the squad last year and they need more international exposure.'