Chinese beach volleyball duo advance to top eight, makes Olympic history for China
15/8/2008 17:06
Chinese beach volleyball duo Tian Jia/Wang Jie advanced to top eight today
at the Beijing Olympic Games.
They also made history for China, whose best
finish at the Olympics was ninth place, made by Tian and her then partner Wang
Fei at Athens Games.
Tian/Wang beat Norwegian opponents Nila Ann
Hakedal/Ingrid Torlen in two straight sets 21-13, 21-15.
"I'm so happy about
the victory. We didn't play so well in the preliminaries matches, but we have
walked past the difficulties," said the 1.87-meter Wang after the
match.
"We'll be relaxed in the next match as we have achieved our goal," she
added.
"We did our best in the match. We congratulate the Chinese team. They
played very well," said Norway's Torlen after the match.
"I wish them all the
best in the next matches," she added.
While Tian is for the third time at the
Olympics, Wang made her Olympics debut.
The Chinese duo has won three FIVB
World Tour gold medals and placed second on the Beijing Olympics qualification
rankings.
They are to play quarterfinal on Sunday against the winners of the
round of 16 match between German pair Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig and Austrian duo
Doris Schwaiger/Stefanie Schwaiger.
Xinhua
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