Jenny Lang Ping: China to face tougher challenge in Rio

China head coach Jenny Lang Ping said here Sunday that the newly crowned women's volleyball World Cup champions would face tougher challenge at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

"We are delighted to win the World Cup title in Japan, but the competition of the Rio Olympic Games will be much more difficult," she told Xinhua.

Under the guidance of Lang Ping, the Chinese women's volleyball team captured its first World Cup title since 2003 by finishing first in the round-robin tournament in Japan on Sept. 6 with a 10-1 record. Their only defeat was against defending world champions the United States, who had also beaten China in the final in Italy last year.

"Brazil and USA are very strong volleyball teams, and Brazil will be playing at home," Jenny added. "We have not had a victory over Brazil for many years. They play the same style of volleyball as we do while they are better than us in a lot of details. We need to improve a lot to join the title race in Rio."

Nicknamed "Iron Hammer" by Chinese fans, Jenny has had a successful spell as a player before taking China and USA to silver medals at the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2008 as a coach. Now she will try to be the first female volleyball coach to win the Olympic gold medal in Rio.

"I do not think about winning too much because I have got so many titles already. I am just trying to do my job every day," she said.

Having lost her captain and star hitter Hui Ruoqi several days before leaving for the World Cup in Japan, Jenny led China through difficult time in the first round of play in Matsumoto before successfully rebuilding a title-winning line-up.

"It was the most difficult tournament I have experienced as a coach, because the difficulties were unpredictable," she said. "The competition was about to start and you suddenly lost one of the most important players of your team. We had really tough time in Matsumoto and finally we could cope with the change."

Jenny said she had not expected to win the World Cup, one of the three major volleyball tournaments in the world, when she reclaimed the helm of the national team in April 2013.

"I had not realized how tough the job is until I started the training with the players," she said. "There was really a lot of work to do and I could hardly find out where to start."

Before long, Jenny made up her mind to start from the basics and spend a lot of time looking for young talents.

Fortunately, she was able to find a group of young players including Zhu Ting, Yuan Xinyue and Zhang Changning and rebuilt the team.

"I have to thank the young players because they learn and improve really fast. They have tried their best," she said.

Jenny and her players' efforts paid off as they reaped a gold and a silver at the World Cup and World Championship and secured their berth in the Rio Olympic Games.

"It's very important to capture the ticket to the Olympic Games through the World Cup, because we can have more time to prepare for the Rio Games," she said. "Now we don't have to think about the qualification tournament. From now on we can focus on the preparation for the strong teams like Brazil and USA." Endi