Olympics-China pick Venezuela and Poland for volleyball defende

China chose Venezuela and Poland as their first two opponents in their women's volleyball title defence during Wednesday's draw for the Beijing Olympics. As hosts, China were allowed to select the opposition for two of their fixtures in the pool stage. Venezuela and Japan were chosen as the opponents in the second and third games in Pool A for the lowly-ranked Chinese men's team. 'This is quite normal in volleyball, it happens in the world championships, World Cups and so on,' Wei Jizhong, vice president of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), told reporters. This advantage for the home team doesn't affect the other teams. In general teams choose the opponents for their last two pool games.'