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For the first time ever, the Huntsman World Senior Games has gone "offshore" with a Friendship Volleyball Tour to China. A group of 43, 24 of which were volleyball players ranging in ages from early 50s to late 70s made the rounds in the Shangdon Province and Beijing China.
The Tour was designed to be a mixture of sight-seeing and volleyball and it lived up to the bill on both accounts. After a warm welcome by President Zhang of the Qingdao Chinese Overseas Friendship Association, and an evening cruise around the Qingdao Bay, Monday, July 26, kicked off the first day of volleyball. The US teams, divided mostly along age group lines of approximately 10 years went up against a decidedly younger China contingency in Qingdao. However, when the day was over, USA Team 3 made the medals stand with a silver medal performance in the round robin tournament.
The teams were also treated to an amazing Opening Ceremonies which included, among others things, a Tai Chi demonstration by over 100 Chinese senior citizens.
For his blocking and all-around great play, Paul Moret earned the distinction of Player of the Day, which was voted upon by the USA players.
Play continued in a sultry-hot gym on Friday, July 30, in Weifang, but the Americans overcame new line-ups and sweaty conditions to once again make the medals stand. Team 2 scored the third place position with a strong performance, once again against younger Chinese teams.
Jim Krull was voted Player of the Day by his fellow countrymen for his contributions to his team.
After some last minute scrambling to replace a lost venue in Tai'an, the American delegation participated in their last day of volleyball for the Tour on August 1, in Jinan, capitol city of Shangdon Province. Cloudy skies and an afternoon rainstorm cooled the gym significantly, but cooler and wetter weather did not dampen the volleyball play. Every American team left the court with at least one win under their belts and the final game between American Team 3 and China Team 1 was one for the memory books. Big hits and massive blocks dominated the entire match.
"I had no idea that senior players were capable of such a display of athleticism," said Mr. Zhang, Vice-Governor of Shandon Province who was present for the final match.
Once again, the USA Team 3 found themselves nestled between two Chinese teams with a second place at the end of the day.
The Tour continued with sight-seeing including a trip to Mount Lao, Qufu and Beijing where the participants toured the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and a few of the Olympic venues from the Beijing Olympics along with a number of other historic sights.
The Tour attracted considerable Chinese media attention while in China. The following link was a report than ran on CSPN, a Chinese sports channel:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTk1OTY1OTEy.html
Tour delegates are sharing their photos of the tour on the photo-sharing site Flickr.com at the following link:
