CHN – Miao leads the Chinese Olympic power

CHENNAI (23rd FIBA Asia Women Championship) - Nine time champions and Asian powerhouse China will rely on their Olympic power to take them to regain the title at the 23rd FIBA Asia Women Championship in Chennai.

Six players who played for China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics are a part of the team under coach Sun Fengwu that will battle it out at Chennai.

Leading the Chinese campaign is guard Miao Lijie who topped the scoring charts while taking her team to a top-four finish in the Beijing Olympics last year.

The 28-year-old led the scoring for the Olympic women’s tournament as China lost only three games – to the US, Australia and Russia, all of them to eventual medalists.

Miao, who donned the Sacramento Monarchs colours for a brief while in 2005, recorded a 17.9 PPG in scoring, along with 3.4 in rebounds and 2.6 in assists.

More recently, Miao shot a staggering series-high 27 as China went down fighting in the deciding game of a three-game series against Olympic silver medalists Australia.

Adding power to Miao’s prowess will be the 197cm-tall center Chen Nan, who had an impressive 14.9 PPG-7.5 RPG record at Beijing.

The 26-year-old Chen then went on to average 23.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game for BaYi Stationery, thus being named the MVP for the season, in the 2009 WCBA.

Chen was also signed by WNBA’s Chicago Sky for the 2009-10 season, before an injury forced a waiver.

Her presence and performance under the board, therefore, will be watched by more than just the National team.

Guard Zhang Hanlan, forwards Chen Xiaoli, Liu Dan and Bian Lan are the other Beijing Olympians in the Chinese ranks.

 All of them showed good form in the series against Australia with Bian standing out with her 13.67 PPG, 4.33 RPG and 5 assists per game.

Incidentally, China who sent a developmental team to the 22nd FIBA Asia Women Championship, have only two players from the team which finished with the silver medal at Incheon two years ago.

Center Guan Xin and guard Zhang Fan are the only two players who bring in their experience from Incheon.

Guan had an 11.6 PPG-5.1 RPG record while Zhang returned a 9.7 PPG-5.6 RPG at Incheon.

Both incidentally, did not play at the Beijing Olympics.

Fengwu who represented China in the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics besides the 1982 and 1986 FIBA World Championships, returns as the head coach having taken the side to the silver medal at Incheon.

His assistants at Incheon Xu Limin and Zheng Wei have also retained their positions.

Adding more strength to Sun’s coaching team in their quest for the gold medal is Australian Bill Tomlinson and American fitness expert Al Biancani.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia