China's Liu Yanan spikes the ball over Japan's blockers Shuka Oyama (L) during their 5th-6th placed match at the final round of the FIVB women's Volleyball World Championship in Osaka, western Japan November 16, 2006. [Reuters]

China blew off a late comeback by Japan here on Thursday to finish fifth at the 2006 women's volleyball World Championships with a 3-0 win.

It took the Olympic and World Cup champions China one hour 13 minutes to finish the last match of the tournament with 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.

The 7th-ranked team in the world, Japan fell behind 19-24 in the third set and saved three match points by Takahashi Miyuki and Kimura Saori, but China then didn't leave any chance fly away as Wang Yimei sealed the victory for the Chinese team with a power fulkill from the left side.

Wang scored 14 points to lead China, Yang Hao had 13 and Xu Yunli added 10.

Ochiai Shuka scored a game-high 17 points, 16 out of spikes, while Kimura and Araki Erika had 9 respectively.

With the victory, China, who had 7-win and 4-loss in the tournament, finished as the fifth place of the tournament. Japan ranked sixth.

Early on Thursday, Russia edged Brazil 3-2 to claim the title of the Championship.

 
 
 
(Source: Chinaview.cn)