World champion Russia beat reigning Olympic champion China 3-1 in Beijing on Monday at the BIT Stadium in a women's volleyball warm-up match for the Beijing Games.
Four years after losing the thrilling five-set final to China at the Athens Games, Russia claimed the hard-fought victory over the first-time Olympic host in a close-door match with Chinese star setter Feng Kun and middle hitter Zhao Ruirui sidelined.
"I am happy with our performance," said Russia head coach Giovanni Caprara. "Our team is in good condition and the attackers are all in good shape.
"But the result does not make any sense, because the Chinese team was missing two important players," he added.
But China head coach Chen Zhonghe was not as satisfied as his Russian counterpart.
"Neither team played well," said Chen, who did not explain why he rested regular starters Feng and Zhao. "We just want to use this match to give our players an opportunity to play."
It was the first match China played after finishing fifth at the World Grand Prix Finals in Yokohama, Japan on July 9-13. The host will meet Cuba, the United States, Poland, Japan and Venezuela in the preliminary round of the Olympic Games while Russia is bracketed with Brazil, Italy, Serbia, Algeria and Kazakhstan.
Top four teams from the round robin preliminaries will make the quarterfinals.
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2008)