HONG KONG — Their comeback was spectacular, however the victory for China’s nationwide girls’s volleyball team drew extra consideration than regular as a result of its members have been carrying facemasks in the beginning of the sport.
In the opening set of their match towards Iran on the Asian Volleyball Confederation Cup, being held in the Philippines, the Chinese gamers have been carrying face coverings as they misplaced 24-26.
But after that, the masks got here off and they took the ultimate three units comfortably successful 25-19, 25-10 and 25-13 and got here out high of Group A.
China, the present champions, will now face Australia in the quarterfinals Saturday.
While some praised the victory, many on social media have been quick to sentence the choice to play carrying masks, and a hashtag tied to the controversy has generated virtually 80 million views on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo.
“Who lost his mind and made the decision?” one consumer wrote. “Such strenuous exercise is already breathless.”
Another wrote: “Don’t you have any common sense?”
Others used it as a chance to query China’s uncompromising “zero-Covid” coverage, which has positioned tons of of tens of millions of individuals underneath varied restrictions as the remainder of the world has embraced a coverage of residing with the coronavirus in the pandemic.
One accused the Chinese Volleyball Association of a “Covid prevention stunt,” and one other wrote, “The whole world is not taking the pandemic that seriously anymore. If the Chinese women’s volleyball team is really afraid of being infected, why not just go back home?”
After the ladies’s victory, the affiliation apologized with a assertion on Weibo, saying that the gamers initially wore masks to “protect themselves” as “no clear rules were provided on mask-wearing by the organizing committee.”
Before the sport, some signs had been reported amongst a few team members, it mentioned, including that they’d additionally discovered that gamers on different groups had been contaminated.
“We did not remind the athletes on the field to remove their masks in time due to our lack of on-spot experience,” it mentioned.
“We realized wearing masks was bad for athletes’ health in the second half of the first set, and the team promptly reminded the players to take off their masks and finish the rest of the game,” the assertion added.
However, there isn’t a proof that carrying masks interferes with respiration or athletic efficiency, in accordance with the World Health Organization and different medical organizations. In a 2020 examine, Canadian researchers discovered “no discernable differences” in train efficiency when younger, wholesome athletes wore masks.