I would like, on behalf of the Asian Volleyball Confederation, to extend my sincere and warm welcome to the participating teams, referees, media, spectators to the beautiful city of Hong Kong to participate the annual FIVB top-level competition..
The 2008 grand Prix is to start from June 20 with the Preliminary Rounds and end the weekend of July 4-6 in nine cities and the finals in Yokohama of Japan from July 9 to 13. The 2008 edition draws 12 National Teams playing a total of 69 matches over four consecutive weekends, with each team playing nine matches over the first three weekends.
The annual international Volleyball competition is the only truly professional top-level competition for the best women’s volleyball teams in the worldĄŁ This year the event draws best teams in the world, including World Cup Champion Italy, Runner-up Brazil, third finisher the United States, Olympic Champion China, four-time Pan American Cup champion Cuba, Poland, Germany and Turkey from Europe, Asian Champion Japan, Kazakhstan and Thailand from Asia and Dominican Republic from NORCECA . In addition to this, this year’s Grand Prix will be used as a last important warm-up for the coming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Most of the participating teams have qualified for the Olympic Games, and they are ready to try their best and show their fantastic performance to the public.
Hong Kong Volleyball Association cooperate closely with FIVB every year to organize the top-level international event successfully, and I would also express my sincere gratitude to the organizer -- Hong Kong Volleyball Association for their fruitful efforts in hosting the Hong Kong leg of the Grand Prix, which I hope will be conductive to the promotion of volleyball level and popularization of volleyball in Hong Kong. I believe with support from officials, participants, volunteers, Hong Kong Volleyball Association, the event in Hong Kong will be certainly a success.
Best wishes of a great success to the 2008 FIVB Grand Prix.
Lets All enjoy volleyball. Lets get involved and lets keep the ball flying ! |