(Beijing, March 22) Host China gave an exceptionally good performance today in the women's final round of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Water Polo China Open by edging Russia 9-8 to place third after Australia and the USA.

Commenting on the bronze-medal match, Chinese center forward Teng Fei, who contributed three goals, described the game as exciting. "We brought our best despite the fact that we missed a few good chances," she said.

Prior to that, China had encountered two other strong teams from Australia and the USA. "We gained a lot from these three games and will be able to better cope with the situations in future competitions," Teng added.

According to the lots drawn today for the Olympic water polo competition, the Chinese women's team will be in the same "death group" with the USA, Italy and Russia. "As a matter of fact," Teng said, "the grouping doesn't matter to us, as the rest of the participating teams are also very strong. We won't have any weight on our mind since we are going to fight it out anyway."

On the contrary, Russian forward Anna Temofeeva showed her worries about the "death group". "The Americans are very strong," she said, "but I think Athens Olympic champions Italy will be more formidable. We will be under tremendous pressure when competing with them."