China and Japan both qualified for the women's volleyball quarterfinals, finishing their preliminaries atop in Pool A and Pool B respectively at the 15th Asian Games here on Wednesday.

Defending champion China defeated its last rival Chinese Taipei in qualifying with three 25-17s and the professional Japanese easily prevailed over their amateurish Tajik opponents in straight sets.

With the absence of head coach Lin Kuang Hung due to illness, Chinese Taipei, tipped as a medal candidate following its impressive performance at the 2006 World Championship in Japan, was strong in fighting spirit, but weak in both attack and defense.

Chen Zhonghe, head coach of China, explained that the reason he sent in the second string team was not because the opponents are easy to take on.

"To the contrary, we have made cautious preparation because Chinese Taipei is quite a competitor and I need to look through all my players as I am trying to find the best player for each position before the 2008 Olympics," said Chen.

After the actions of the day, Chinese Taipei placed third in Pool B, while the young Tajikistan ended its Asiad debut with a non-win record.

The two winners are expected to enter the semifinals comfortably as China is scheduled to meet less-experienced Mongolia in the quarterfinals and Japan faces Vietnam, which lost all three preliminaries.

In the other two matches on Wednesday, South Korea stormed to a25-10, 25-16, 25-20 victory over Vietnam, finishing the qualifying as Pool A runner-up and Kazakhstan also ranked second in Pool B after beating Mongolia 3-0.

South Korea will take on Thailand and Kazakhstan meets Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Nine teams were split into two groups to battle for the women's volleyball title, with China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam playing in Group A and Kazakhstan, Japan, Thailand, Tajikistan and Mongolia in Group B.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)