Ukrainian volleyball fans are waiting for a real sports holiday. After all, on September 16, the women's national team of Ukraine will play against the Chinese team in the first qualification round for the 2024 Olympic Games, which will be held in Paris. The match will be held at the opponent's court in the city of Ningbo and will start at 14:30 Kyiv time.
Qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games. Women
Ningbo China
September 16. First round
14:30 China — Ukraine
The national team of China - introducing the opponents
Our closest opponents are currently in sixth position in the FIVB world ranking. The representatives of China are the current silver medalists of the Asian Championship. Although they should have expected more in these competitions, in the decisive match they unexpectedly lost to Thailand, who was considered an underdog (2-3).
In addition, the Chinese women performed quite successfully in the Nations League 2023. After all, they reached the very final, where they lost to the future European champions, the players of Turkey, in a fierce fight (1-3). It is interesting that on the way to the "silver" they, in particular, prevailed over such teams as the USA (3-2), Brazil (3-1) and Poland (3-0).
One of the leaders of the attacks on the Chinese national team is Li Yining. The athlete became the second top scorer of the last draw of the Nations League (she earned 291 points in 15 matches). By the way, the Polish opposite Magdalena Stysiak (298 points) won that scoring race.
Let's add that the women's national teams of China and Ukraine have never met each other before.
Rules of Qualification for the Olympic Games
The first 24 teams according to the FIVB ranking as of September 2022 will compete for tickets to the Games. In the qualification, they were divided into three groups, where the host countries were determined - China, Japan, and Poland, respectively. The two best national teams from each will receive Olympic licenses.
Group A (Ningbo): China, Serbia, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Canada, Czech Republic, Mexico, UKRAINE;
Group B (Tokyo): Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Belgium, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Peru;
Group C (Lodz): Poland, Italy, USA, Germany, Thailand, Colombia, South Korea, Slovenia.
France, as the host country, became a participant in the Olympic Games automatically. The last five tickets will be awarded to the teams with the highest ranking at the end of the 2024 Nations League group stage.
The roster of the Chinese national team:
middle blockers: Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan, Gao Yi, Yang Hanyu;
setters: Diao Linyu, Ding Xia;
outside hitters: Li Yining, Wang Yunxiang, Zhong Hui, Wu Mengjie;
opposites: Gong Xianyu, Zheng Yixin;
liberos: Wang Menjie, Ni Feifan;
head coach: Cai Binh.
The roster of the national team of Ukraine:
middle blockers: Svitlana Dorsman, Anastasiia Maievska, Uliana Kotar, Diana Meliushkina;
setters: Daria Sharhorodska, Viktoriia Oliinyk;
outside hitters: Oleksandra Milenko, Yevheniia Khober, Nadiia Kodola, Yulia Dymar;
opposites: Viktoriia Danchak, Anastasiia Kraiduba;
liberos: Krystyna Niemtseva, Alika Lutsenko;
Head coach: Ivan Petkov.
Watch the matches of the women's national team of Ukraine on the website DIVISPORT.TV and on the MEGOGO and SWEET.TV platforms.
