BANGKOK (FIBA Asia Championship for Women) - Some key players of past tournaments will be absent for China at the FIBA Asia Championship for Women, but the team still has the potent low-post presence of Chen Nan.
A three-time Olympian who averaged 15.7 points and 6.7 rebounds at the London Games, the 30-year-old made her senior team bow at the 2002 FIBA World Championship for Women.
The squad will lean heavily counting on Chen's leadership and experience with veterans Miao Lijie, Lan Bian and Ma Zangyu not in the tournament which tips off on Sunday.
According to FIBA Asia, China will go into the qualifying event for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women with five players taller than 1.90m.
Sun Mengran and veteran Chen are the team's twin towers at 1.97m.
The Chinese, on average, will be the tallest squad at the event.
After China (1.87m average) is Kazakhstan at 1.86m, although they have the biggest player of all in Nadezhda Kondrakova at 2.01m.
Tom Maher, who is in his second stint as the national team coach after leading China at the 2008 Olympics, will also have Zhao Shuang.
A member of the Chinese team at the London Games, Zhao should be a player the fans in Bangkok remember.
She was in the Thai capital four years ago when China competed at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women.
The top three sides at the FIBA Asia Championship for Women will clinch places at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey.
The Chinese have captured nine of the last 12 Asian crowns.
They have reached the top of the podium 11 times in the history of the competition, which was first played in 1965.
China squad: Shanshan Li, Siyue Qiu, Xiaojia Chen, Yanyan Ji, Shuang Zhao, Feng Cheng, Wen Lu, Jiachen Liu, Song Gao, Nuo Xu, Sun Mengran and Nan Chen.
FIBA
