Lausanne, 15 August 2006 – As the FIVB’s annual men’s World League draws to its climax with the final intercontinental rounds this weekend, the women’s competition, the World Grand Prix, starts three weeks of action from tomorrow, ahead of finals in Reggio Calabria, Italy, from 6-10 September. The tournament will start with single round-robin action in Hong Kong, Poland and Japan.

The 2006 World Grand Prix will get off to an exciting start on Wednesday 16 August with two “continental derbies”, as the USA face the Dominican Republic and Poland take on Italy in the first two matches of the tournament in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The other teams in action are newcomers Azerbaijan, China, Russia and Thailand, who will play over the weekend in Hong Kong and Brazil, Cuba, Japan and Korea, who will play in Tokyo.

In addition to competing for the World Grand Prix title, the teams will also be using the tournament as valuable preparation for the World Championships in Japan later this year, with Thailand being the only one of the 12 participants without a berth in the FIVB’s quadrennial worlds. Some teams even have their sights set further, as U.S. Head Coach Jenny Lang Ping notes: “Everybody is working hard to prepare for World Championships this year and next year trying to qualify for the Olympics in 2008. That is why we have really taken very seriously how hard we need to work to qualify for the Olympics. That is the major goal for us. It is going to be very hard for us to qualify for the Olympics if we don’t improve a lot.”

Defending champions Brazil will be looking for a “three-peat" this year after taking the gold medal in 2004 and 2005, bringing their total to five victories in 13 editions. Coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes believes “it's important to play this tournament against teams such as Cuba, China, Japan and Korea so we know our level.” Like most of the other coaches, he also has a strong focus on the World Championships and hopes to see his players competing for a place in the team that will travel to Japan. “At the moment it's difficult to say what my team will be for the World Championships,” he says, “because a lot of things can happen and there can be a lot of combinations. I don't like to say I've already decided on six or eight players; I want them all to keep playing for a place.”

After Japan finished fifth in the 2005 World Grand Prix, Head Coach Shoichi Yanagimoto is looking for a podium place this year. In his view, “Brazil and China are the top two teams in the world at the moment, followed by Cuba, Italy and Japan,” so he is relishing the challenge and is particularly “looking forward to playing against Brazil because it is a big challenge for us.”

China’s Head Coach Chen Zhonghe also stressed the importance of the tournament in his team’s preparations for the World Championships. “We’ll take advantage of the Grand Prix to improve our coordination and team-work. The competition is an important part of our all-round preparations for the 2006 World Championships, which we consider are the most important event for the Chinese team,” he said.

China will be without Zhou Suhong, one of the team’s best veteran players, for the Hong Kong leg, though she may compete in the next leg in Macao if she recovers. Head Coach Chen added “I am going to give my young players more chances to play as it is very valuable for them to play in high-level competitions, which will certainly make them gain international experience and mature.”

Cuba will also lack a key figure in the team, as Luis Felipe Calderon’s squad will not be able to count on the advice of the experienced Eugenio George, who has been forced to stay at home to recover from illness. Last year, Cuba qualified for the final round and finished fourth behind Brazil, Italy and China.

As the fourth-ranked team in Asia, Thailand qualified automatically for its fifth consecutive participation in the World Grand Prix and will also host one of the pools in the third round. “We have trained intensively in preparing for the uphill task in the World Grand Prix. Despite the fact that we are playing the world’s best teams, my girls will do their best. To enter the finals in Italy is likely to be a difficult mission for us. I just told my girls to give their all-out in every match they are taking part in,” said Thai Head Coach Suttichai Chanbunchee.

The top five teams from the preliminary rounds, together with Italy as host country, will advance to the finals for five days of competition from 6-10 September 2006.