It's not looking good

The Chinese women's volleyball team finished fifth at the World Grand Prix Finals in Ningbo, Zhejiang province last week, claiming only one victory over Cuba, which failed to make the Olympics.

Losses to London group opponents Brazil, the United States and Turkey diminished the odds the team will even advance to the knockout stage, much less reach its goal of making the semifinals.

Wei Jizhong, president of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), blamed a lack of intense practice session.

"(The losing streak) is because of the lack of strict demands in training," Wei told the Sports Fans on Wednesday. "Without high-level requirements in training, the players can hardly perform consistently well in games."

The 72-year-old Wei, a renowned figure in Chinese sports, has witnessed the team's ups and downs since its prime in the 1980s, and said it's hard to predict how it will fare in London.

"Sometimes, it plays pretty well, like it could beat any team in the world," he said. "But this time it didn't, even losing to some unfancied rivals like Thailand. It's hard to tell (how it will do London) because it didn't perform consistently enough."

Drawing a "group of death" that includes the defending champion US, world No 2 Brazil and Asian powerhouse South Korea, China will have to play its best in every match to survive the pool, Wei said.

A slew of injuries isn't helping.

Almost half the main roster, including attacker Wang Yimei, setter Wei Qiuyue and libero Zhang Xian, was sidelined by injuries in Ningbo and won't fully recover before the Games.

Wei said the head coach should take responsibility for the team's injury problem.

"It depends on how you controlled the training intensity or what kind of method you used," he said. "Our coach used his experience - not a scientific system - to make the training plan. But experience is usually unreliable."

Coach Yu Juemin was appointed to the job in 2010, taking over for Chen Zhonghe who led gold and bronze medal finishes at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games, respectively.

Although he led the team to a direct berth in London, Yu's ability was questioned by the media when China finished 10th at the 2010 Worlds and eight in last year's finals.

The 52-year-old Yu attributed the disaster in Ningbo to a lack of meat in the team's diets.

"We haven't eaten any meat for three weeks for fear of ingesting illegal lean meat powder," he said. "So the players couldn't maintain their strength at a high level."

Lean meat powder, also known as clenbuterol, produces leaner meat but can cause nausea, dizziness and heart palpitations in humans. Athletes testing positive for clenbuterol will be banned from the Olympics