The camp kick-started China’s preparation for Women’s Olympic Tournament playoff against Korea.
BEIJING (China): China’s women’s national team began their four-week training camp at the Suzhou Taihu Football Centre, Suzhou on April 2 as life returns to normal in the country.
“The aim of this camp is to help the players restore fitness and strength,” Steel Roses captain Wu Haiyan told FIFA.com. “We are taking some warm-up exercise as well as attacking and defence training.”
Health and safety, of course, remain a top priority with strict protective measures in place.
“Except for training on the field, we always wear face-masks,” said the 27-year-old. “Each of us has a separate hotel room and when eating in the dining hall, everyone has a separate table to maintain distance.”
Social distancing measures were taken across the country in the past months but the players were far from idle as Wu revealed.
“Coach Jia [Xiu Quan] asked us to train at home on a daily basis. He had a plan made for everyone. But there are no training facilities at home so we had to make the best of what we have.
“For me, I used everything I had on hand for training. I would use a loaded bag or jar for weightlifting. Besides, I went jogging when there were few people outside.”
The camp kick-starts China’s preparation for the decisive Women’s Olympic Football Tournament playoff against Korea Republic, which was most recently scheduled for June.
But with the International Olympic Committee announcing that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will be held in 2021, the two-legged playoff is set to take place at a later date.
“It is hard to tell if this [postponement] is an advantage or disadvantage for us,” said Wu. “As players we want to play the matches as early as possible because we can’t wait to seal our qualification for the Olympic Games. But we will take the difficulty as it comes.” (Source: FIFA)
