Taipei, September 23, 2011 – China added another gem to their extensive collection of gold medals in the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship with a thrilling 3-1 (25-16, 25-17, 25-27, 25-17) victory over Japan in the title match of the 16th edition Friday evening at Taiwan University Gymnasium.

The Championship doubled as a qualifier for both the FIVB Women's World Cup 2011 and the FIVB World Grand Prix 2012. China, as champions, will move onto the World Cup in Japan, while hosts Japan qualify automatically. Bronze medallists Korea still have a chance to go to Japan if their world ranking is higher than the runners-up in other continental championships.

China’s Wang Yimei was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, while teammates Yang Junjing and Wei Qiuyue were voted Best Blocker and Best Server, respectively.

The Chinese relied on effective blocks, strong attacks and killing serves as they cruised through the first two sets with little resistance from Japan. In the third set, China continued to have the upper hand until 22-19 when Japan fought back and took the set as China touched the net twice. Although Japan led in the early stages of the fourth set, China rallied with solid blocks and relentless spikes, taking the set, the match and the title.

Wing spiker Wang Yimei and Hui Ruoqi led China with 18 points apiece, while Best Blocker Yang Jujing added 12 points. Ma Yunwen and Zhang Lei contributed 11 points each. Saori Kimura paced Japan with 19 points, while Saori Sakoda and Risa Shinnabe both contributed seven points. China out-blocked Japan 15-4 and held a 4-3 service ace advantage. In attacks the champions had the edge 52-49 and made 21 errors to 30 by Japan.

Information from FIVB