Volleyball Friendship Tour 2009
Chinese Volleyball stars call Monash home for 2 weeks
Tuesday 11 August
From 8 to 19 March, 2008 the University Blues Volleyball Team travelled to China on a friendship tour of Chinese universities and schools.
Featuring players from Melbourne and Monash Universities, the tour featured many games and was an important step in helping the volleyball athletes develop and in building relationships between Melbourne and Monash universities and the universities and schools in China.
18 months later, it is now Monash University’s turn to host the touring Chinese volleyball players from Tianjin University. The team arrived on Saturday 1 August and will depart on Thursday 13 August.
Featuring some of China’s most talented and upcoming players the tour has provided them with the opportunity to gain international volleyball competition experience as well as soaking up some of the Australian culture.
The team was warmly welcomed at Monash University’s Open Day on Sunday 2 August by University and Monash City Council dignitaries including Councillor Jieh-Yung Lo, who is the first Australian born Chinese background person to be elected to Monash City Council.
Councillor Lo warmly welcomed the team to Monash and Australia. “I hope you enjoy your stay and experience all of what Monash has to offer, good luck with your games!”
The Tianjin team ran through an elite level sport testing procedure based at Monash University’s High Performance Sport Centre.
Matthew Sheldon-Collins, High Performance Sport Coordinator at Monash University commented, “The boys are just super athletes and could apply these talents to any sport”.
The tour has featured Tianjin University playing Melbourne and Monash University club teams as well as teams from local leagues and culminated on Sunday with matches against Australian Volleyball League teams.
From a cultural perspective, the Tianjin team took trips to Healesville Sanctuary, experienced an AFL football match, and learnt to surf in Torquay today. As part of the AFL experience they were involved in a clinic run by Carlton Football Club for approximately 200 Monash University international students. Bryce Gibbs took the students through their paces.
“It was hard to explain the rules to them because they didn’t know much, but they all seemed to pick it up pretty quick,” Gibbs said. “It’s good to share some of our culture with visitors from overseas, they really enjoyed the day.”
Tianjin University is located about 90 minutes south east of China’s capital, Beijing.
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Agilty testing at the High Performance Sport Centre
Testing the players vertical leap
Some Tianjin voleyballers and Monash students with Carlton footballers Sam Jacobs and Paul Bower
Concentrating during a game against the Monash University Volleyball Club
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