Chinese president’s visit obstructs Uni Blues visit to Renmin
Day 6
Thursday 13 March
Our Chinese tour organisers Grace and Long invited us to visit their workplace in Haidian District, Mason Consulting, which helps foreign companies go through the complicated business registration process. The pair had worked tirelessly to make our visit run smoothly and we were happy to spend time touring their government building and listening to a presentation on Haidian.
The district houses 34 Olympics venues, the headquarters for the Olympic Organising Committee and is one of the main targets for foreign investment. There are 80 universities and 213 research institutes and 100,000 students graduate every year.
Our chef de mission, Martin Doulton, also made presentations of Australian flags, donated by Senator for Victoria, Rod Kemp, and other gifts from Monash and Melbourne universities to two deputy directors in foreign investment in the Haidian district, Mr Huang Junxiong and Mr Luo Jun. Making connections with officials at this level has helped to promote our two universities throughout the trip.
Our new friends then took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant, where we were treated to stunning interior design, a sumptuous banquet and good company. Our Australian tour organiser KC Chong made the discovery that one of our table guests was born on the same small northern island, Hainan, that her family came from and was able to try out some of the Hainanese phrases from childhood.
We struggled to get moving after so much good food but a game had been scheduled for 4pm and traffic as usual was expected to be heavy so we headed to Renmin University, ranked number one for volleyball in Beijing universities.
Traffic proved frustrating on the way to and from the game – stuck in gridlock on the trip home, our team mascot, a very slow mechanical walking panda, made two laps the length of the bus before we had moved 50 feet!
MATCH REPORT
Renmin didn’t look too daunting in the warm-up but the first set showed the team to be a well-organised attacking machine. The players train together every day and the team coordination enabled them to create some lightning-fast combinations. Jon Cannon, Nick Lemalu and Tommy Hals restored some confidence halfway into the first set with strong spikes through the Great Wall of China defence. Renmin held ground to take the first 25-18.
Tommy and Lemalu continued good form in the second but Renmin stepped up the pace, some blinding cross-court hits enabling them to keep control. Matt Rozycki and Chris O’Keefe grabbed some game time and proved valuable once they adjusted to the intense Renmin attack. Renmin maintained a lead throughout, taking the second 25-20.
Kyle Griffith came off the bench in the third and opened up the game with great cross-court angles and consistent passing. Cannon’s control as Libero and some big returns by Leemalu, Aaron Krahe and Paul Deweerd gave the Blues a shot at taking the set before Renmin’s dynamic pass game gave the home team the set 25-23.
In the spirit of friendly competition, Renmin agreed to play a fourth set to allow the whole Blues team to get court time. The Blues ramped up the attack with fresh legs on the court, outside hitter Matt Campbell having an immediate effect. The Australian side followed coach Qi Shen’s instructions to protect the centre, Griffith and Krahe also contributing with some big hits. The game went down to the wire, Renmin just hanging on for a 26-24 win.
COACH’S COMMENTS
The coach was frustrated by the gaps in defence and told players they should have taken a set from Renmin. She was disappointed in some of the poor teamwork.
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