Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe and his women spikers love to sing a popular lyric titled as "Sunlight always comes after wind and rain".

"Sunlight always comes after wind and rain, be confident that we will see the rainbow in the end. No matter how much wind and rain we go through, I will always be on your side," Chen sang softly the mandarin song in a Fujian accent after China won the first triumph at the three major women's volleyball tournaments, namely the World Cup, the World Championships and the Olympics, since 1986, when China crowned at the World Championships.

"My players have been my companions through the rain and wind,"Chen said. "I could not achieve anything without them."

When the 46-year-old Chen, who had been trial horse and assistant coach of the Chinese women's team since 1979, took the helm in February, 2001, few people believed he could lead the team to repeat the glory of the "Old Chinese Women's Volleyball Team", which had scored five straight victories in the World Cup, the World Championships and the Olympics in the 1980s.

"I was not a famous coach, and I had not made significant achievements as a player," Chen said.

"Quite a few people doubted my ability, some even said 'Is that possible that somebody who can not even speak standard mandarin can be a good coach?'" Chen recalled.

The critics raised their high-pitched tones when Chen began to rebuild the Chinese team by replacing star players such as Zhu Yunying and Qiu Aihua with newcomers Feng Kun, Yang Hao, Zhao Ruirui and Liu Ya'nan.

Against heavy pressure as his move was hotly disputed across the Chinese media, Chen did not back off but sticked to his choice of players and the young spikers did not let him down.

The fresh faces began to make their international fame late in 2001. Following a victory in the Asian Championship, China won the Grand Champions Cup with a crystal clean record in Japan in November.

The Chinese women went on to finish runners-up to Russia at the2002 Grand Prix finals, before trapping into the biggest trouble since the founding of the new squad.

In a strategy to avoid an early crash with Russia, which held a commanding record over China in 2002, at the World Championships in Germany, China lost some of the group matches intentionally, triggering off anger from the opponents as well as the Chinese fans.

The low-spirited Chinese women then lost to Italy in the semi-finals for a disappointing fourth place finish at the tournament.

"That was the worst time for our team," said Chen Zhonghe. "Fortunately we went through it shoulder to shoulder."

China lucked up going into the year of 2003. It scored its first ever Grand Prix title in Italy in August and retained the Asian championship title in Vietnam in October before completing a 2003 hat-trick at the World Cup.

With the World Cup trophy and an Olympic ticket in hand, Chen and his players eyed the title at the Athens Games in 2004.

"People will have higher expectations from us in the Olympic Games, because we have won the World Cup," said Chen. "But we still have a lot to improve in order to achieve a good result at the Athens Games."

"We will come across more difficulties and obstacles in the future, but I'm sure we shall overcome them together."

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