FUKUOKA (Japan), Nov 17: Asian champions China brushed aside South Korea in three sets for their fourth straight win and secured top place in the World Grand Champions Cup women’s volleyball tournament on Saturday.

The young Chinese spikers, who formed the current team in April, outgunned the Asian silver medallists 25-13, 25-15, 25-12 for a 4-0 win-loss record in the six-team round robin competition.

Even if China lose to South American champions Brazil on the final day, they are now unreachable for European champions Russia, Brazil and hosts Japan who stood with a 2-2 record, respectively.

“I’m really happy that our young and newly-formed team won the championship. I think our efforts finally paid off. We’ll do our best to win the next Olympic Games,” said Chinese captain Feng Kun.

It was China’s first major title since they won the world championships in 1986, earning themselves the top prize of 300,000 dollars.

Since then, their highest finishes were second in the 1990 world championships, 1991 World Cup, 1993 Grand Champions Cup, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and the 1998 world championships.

But they seemed to return to their winning ways when they finished runners-up to the United States in the World Grand Prix in Macau in August.

Earlier in the day in Fukuoka, western Japan, Sydney Olympic silver medallists Russia and bronze medallists Brazil posted their second win to keep their silver medal hopes alive.

The Russians used their high blocking and angled attacks to humiliate hosts Japan 25-17, 25-23, 25-13, while the Brazilians had to come back from being 1-2 down to beat the United States 25-17, 21-25, 20-25, 25-22, 20-18.

Russia’s Ekaterina Gamova scored 19 points out of 34 attacks and six from 12 blocking attempts, while ace Evguenia Artamonova scored 17 from her attacks and two by her blocking and serves.

Brazil’s coach Marco Aurelio Motta said: “Overall I’m satisfied with the way we played today. My players lost their concentration in the latter half of the second set, but they recovered from the lapse in the third set.

Saturday’s results:

Russia bt Japan 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-13); Brazil bt USA 3-2 (25-17, 21-25, 20-25, 25-22, 20-18); China bt South Korea 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-12).—AFP