Stare Jablonki, Poland, July 6, 2013 – “This is my dream come true”, China’s Chen Xue said after winning the first world title for China with Zhang Xi.
“This is a very important win for us”, she said. “And the audience gave us a lot of power.”
The Chinese had a slow start this week at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. The 2011 bronze medallists lost one of their pool matches but ended up with the gold medal after all.
Asked about their shaky start this week Xue said: “We did not know if we would play well today, because in our first matches this week we did not play very well. But we improved step by step during the event, so that’s very important.”
“We did not know a lot about the German team”, Zhang Xi said about their opponents. “It was the first time we played them, we had to search how to play them.”
Their original plan did not work, so they had to change tactics after losing the first set, Zhang Xi said. “The player on the right (Britta Buthe) played really well. After the first set we tried to play the left player (Karla Borger) and that got us points.”
After a break from the World Tour, during which they played at the National Games in China, Xue and Zhang Xi are happy to be back. “We enjoyed this competition a lot. It was a good test to see how far we are”, Xue said. “This match was very close in the end. I think we really grew up mentally.”
Xue and Zhang Xi are proud to be the first Chinese team to win a world title, but wished that the 2011 champions Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta from Brazil had been here to defend their title.
“We miss Juliana and Larissa a lot”, Zhang Xi said. “They are very good players, I hope they will come back soon.”