China delighted home fans with a stylish straight-sets win over Cuba on Sunday to finish top of the women's volleyball World Grand Prix at Ningbo.

In the championship match, China, off the back of two straight victories in Ningbo, crushed Cuba 25-19, 25-23, 25-19 in just 68 minutes. Cuba came out as runners-up with a 2-1 win-loss record, followed by Poland (1-2) and Azerbaijan (0-3).

Both China and Cuba qualified for the World Grand Prix finals, which run from September 6-10 in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

China's coach Chen Zhonghe said his team had made steady progress at the World Grand Prix.

"We played better and better during the past three matches," he said.

"Though our team is not very experienced, the young players have begun to blend into the side."

In front of a frenetic 8,000-strong crowd, China started off well in the opening set as they jumped to a 4-1 lead before extending the advantage to six points at 14-8. The Cubans edged closer to 16-13, only to see China pull away again to 23-15 with a 7-2 run.

Trailing 24-17, Cuba staved off two set points but spiker Rosir Calderon then served long to allow China to take the set.

Cuba opened the second set with a 5-2 lead and stretched it to 8-4. When both teams were locked at 18-all, a kill by Yang Hao put China in front for the first time in the set. China never trailed from then on and took the hard-fought set 25-23.

It was a similar affair in the third set, which saw Cuba gain an early upper-hand, but China overturned the lead midway before closing out at 25-19.

Yang Hao was China's top scorer with 14 points, including 12 spikes, and Xu Yunli was also in fine form with the same points tally.

Calderon led the Cubans with 16 points, all from spiking attempts.

The Ningbo leg is part of a qualifying campaign featuring 12 of the world's top teams. The top five teams from the qualifying rounds will join hosts Italy in the World Grand Prix finals in September.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2006)