Chen Zhonghe: New faces may appear at winter training

The Chinese Women's Volleyball Team will start its last intensive training season before the 2008 Olympic Games beginning January 1, 2008, in Zhangzhou. The team's coach, Chen Zhonghe, revealed that new faces may appear for training.

Young athletes like Zhang Xian and Wei Qiuyue, who were selected for last year's winter training, proved to be excellent.

Now, Chen is guiding the four veterans -- Zhao Ruirui, Feng Kun, Yang Hao, and Zhou Suhong -- in doing recovery exercises. Chen explained that he would select some new athletes to train for the national team.

"It depends on their capabilities," said Chen. Since Wei and Zhang had good performance in last year's competition, Chen decided to give more opportunities to freshmen.

Who will be chosen to join in winter training is to be decided through interviews in Beijing.

The winter training season will be the most important training before the Olympic Games. It will last four months. During that period, the Chinese girls would still participate in a series of warm-up competitions to adjust and improve.