Hosts target volleyball gold

Chinese indoor volleyball star Yang Hao

Volleyball will provide China with a strong chance of gold on home soil as they defend their women's indoor title at the Beijing Olympics.

There are two volleyball disciplines - indoor and beach volleyball - with men's and women's tournaments in each.

The Chinese won the women's indoor event at Athens in 2004, defeating Russia 3-2 in an epic final.

They will be represented at the Beijing Games as hosts. Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, the USA and most recently Russia have also qualified.

There are five remaining places, to be filled at further qualifying tournaments before the end of May.

Brazil, a nation with a proud volleyball history, now leads the world rankings in both the men's and women's indoor game.

The Brazilian men won indoor gold at Athens, and recently won the twelve-team 2007 Volleyball World Cup in Japan.

That sealed their Olympic qualification, along with Russia, Bulgaria and hosts China.

Serbia, the USA and Venezuela also booked their places in Beijing through qualifying tournaments in January 2008.

Nations like Germany and Portugal will be relying on further qualifying tournaments to be held later in the year.

Beach volleyball is relatively new to the Olympics.

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It was introduced in 1996 for the Atlanta Games, and has been largely dominated by Brazilian and American pairs.

Countries may enter two teams for beach volleyball - in 1996, Brazil took both gold and silver in the women's event.

As yet only the hosts have qualified for both the men's and women's 2008 tournaments.

The remaining 23 places in each competition hang on the world rankings.

Team GB has never fielded an indoor volleyball team at an Olympics, and has only once reached the Games in beach volleyball - Amanda Glover and Audrey Cooper represented Britain at Atlanta 1996.

The beach duo of Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton are Team GB's best hope for Beijing, but they have their work cut out to qualify.

They will aim to force their way into the top 24 by the time the world rankings are published in July 2008. They are currently at least 20 places off the pace, but have plenty of events in 2008 in which to boost their ranking.