Netizens exclaim, "Wang Mengjie finally has a successor!" Shanghai Xiaohua Shines U21 Women's Volleyball World Championships quarterfinals | Women's Volleyball | U21
On August 22, Beijing time, the Chinese women's volleyball team will face their first opponent, Mexico, in the quarterfinals of the 2023 U21 Women's Volleyball World Championships. In the group stage, the Chinese team played against Serbia, Poland, and Argentina, achieving a record of 2 wins and 1 loss, and advancing to the quarter finals as the top team in the group.
According to the rules, China, Serbia, Japan, Mexico and other teams form Group E, while Brazil, Italy, the United States and Türkiye form Group F for single round robin competition within the group. The top two in the group will advance to the semi-finals.
Due to age restrictions in this women's volleyball world championship, the Chinese women's volleyball team has sent three teams to compete, all of whom are highly potential players from various domestic clubs.
It is worth mentioning that free agent Zhu Xingchen from Shanghai performed well. She took on heavy first pass and defensive tasks, leading the team in first pass positions. In the game against Serbia, when the whole team was out of form, Zhu Xingchen played normally and made several brilliant saves. In the match against the Polish team, Zhu Xingchen faced the repeated heavy dunks of three Polish wingers, receiving high and blocking low, laying a solid foundation for the defensive counterattack of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Zhu Xingchen's outstanding performance also made netizens exclaim, "The Chinese women's volleyball freestyle finally has a successor after Wang Mengjie!"
Last season in the women's volleyball Super League, Zhu Xingchen was promoted to the first team and received training opportunities. In the first half of this year's National Women's Volleyball Championship, the young Shanghai women's volleyball team was defeated by the Jiangsu women's volleyball team in the volleyball league, ranking second. For the Shanghai women's volleyball team, with an average age of 21.5 years old, the exercise value of the competition is more valuable than the results. Zhu Xingchen is also highly regarded by the outside world as the future star of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
Zhu Xingchen, who is 20 years old this year, comes from Jinshan, Shanghai. Her characteristics are fast footsteps, steady defense in one pass, and she has shown talent in the free agent position early on. She was named the best free agent in the 2019 FIFA World Cup. In the 2021 Shaanxi National Games U19 women's volleyball competition, she emerged as the younger generation of the Shanghai women's volleyball team. In the Shanghai women's volleyball team, Zhu Xingchen, who is less than 1.70 meters tall, looks like a "little bit". However, when she was a child, she came from a main attacking background and had a fighting spirit. When Zhu Xingchen was very young, her volleyball skills had already attracted the attention of the Shanghai team. As an outstanding talent cultivated locally in Shanghai, Zhu Xingchen will also be a key target for training in the next Olympic cycle.
However, because Zhu Xingchen missed books for a while and did not plan to pursue a career path, the Shanghai women's volleyball team tried their best to keep her. In the end, due to the reluctance to part with her beloved volleyball career, Zhu Xingchen gave up Fudan University to ensure systematic training and decided to attend Shanghai Sport University.
With the continuous improvement of the Shanghai women's volleyball team's youth training system, "little flowers" like Zhu Xingchen have better channels for success. It is understood that during this Olympic cycle, the Shanghai women's volleyball team will focus on youth training, cultivating and introducing two legged walking. On the one hand, excellent young talents are delivered by various sports schools and traditional volleyball characteristic schools in various districts of Shanghai; On the other hand, select the best from the best in the country and select young athletes with outstanding physical fitness.
In recent years, Shanghai Sports has continuously improved its policies and guarantee mechanisms for attracting talents. Taking volleyball as an example, it solves the problem of athletes studying and ensures the rate of college admission. Fudan University, Shanghai Sport University, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, East China Normal University, Shanghai Foreign Studies University and other universities are all specialized in volleyball, providing children who play volleyball with no worries.
One pass is the lifeline of volleyball. From the participation of the Chinese women's volleyball team in the World Women's Volleyball League, it can be seen that unstable first pass is still one of the problems that the team needs to solve. The emergence of outstanding reserve talents like Zhu Xingchen has also provided momentum for the long-term development of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
