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'Iron Hammer' Lang nails star-studded team

By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-13 10:31

GUANGZHOU: The "Iron Hammer", Lang Ping, has put together a star-studded cast to represent her second division club, Guangdong Evergrande Women's Volleyball Club.

The newly-established club's 19-member squad includes four former Chinese national players and two US national team members while the other 13 players have been recruited from local first division sides.

"Lang has always been my idol as a player and a coach," said Feng Kun, a former national team captain. "I wanted to learn more from her and accumulate more experience, so I joined her club. I believe what I can learn here will benefit my future career and life."

As a player, Lang helped the country win four titles including a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, a World Championship crown in 1982 and two World Cups, in 1981 and 1985.

She then turned her talents to coaching. From 1995-98 she led the Chinese women's team to an Olympic silver medal in Atlanta and a second-place finish at the Worlds in Japan in 1998. She then worked with the US women's team from 2005-08 and helped that side win silver at last year's Beijing Games.

After finishing a short-term coaching contract with the Turkish Telecom Club, Lang, somewhat surprisingly, signed a five-year contract with the Guangdong Evergrande Club in August. The team was founded by the Evergrande Real Estate Group on April 24.

The group has invested 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) into the club, which will leap into action in the second division on Nov 28.

Besides Feng, other big signings include former national team players Zhou Suhong, Yang Hao and Yin Yin and Americans Christa Harmotto, a former US national team middle hitter, and Nicole Davis, the current US libero.

"Lang has a special personal charming and I have admired her since I was young," said spiker Yang. "I hope to be a good player under her guidance."

The two foreign players were also full of praise for the former coach.

"I am very familiar with the Chinese system of volleyball because she was our coach for four years and I played against the Chinese national team many times," said Davis. "I still think there is a lot to learn about volleyball. I think it's a continuing learning process and that's why I want to be here."

With such a strong core of players, Lang, who reportedly has an annual income of 5 million yuan ($732,000), naturally has high hopes.

"Our goal for the upcoming season is to achieve good results in the second division and reach division one," Lang said.

One problem she may face is the fact that the former national team members are all about 30 years old.

"Stamina and injuries are the main concerns as they have been out of the national team for more than a year," said Lang.

"We are just at the starting point and the other second division teams are also strong. No matter who forms the line-up, they will have to do their best because we have no reason to be blindly confident."