Tokyo, August 28, 2006: Amidst the frenzy as Japan beat Korea 3-0 in a recent World Grand Prix women's volleyball match, one cheer seemed to stand out from the rest.
It came deep into the third set and greeted the arrival on court of Shuka Oyama, Japan's China-born wing spiker who is already a crowd favourite in her adopted country.
Unlike athletes in other sports, though, notably table tennis and badminton, who leave China and take up citizenship overseas, Oyama is most definitely "made in Japan" when it comes to volleyball.
Still referred to affectionately by her Chinese name of Wang Jiao, the 25-year-old Oyama came to Japan when she was 16 and did not start playing volleyball until she was 18. But thanks to her background as a junior high school high-jump champion in China, she has adapted quickly to her new sporting love. There is a natural spring in her step as she moves into position around the court, followed by an effortless leap and finally an explosive burst of power as she spikes the ball over the net from a steep angle.
Wang Jiao the Chinese high-jumper has been transformed into Shuka Oyama the Japanese volleyball ace -- and she is still far from the finished product.
"The training is hard but I really enjoy it because I am learning something new every day," she told the official website of the 2006 FIVB World Championships (www.2006vball.jp) in a recent interview.
"I found it very difficult at first, especially when I tried to serve because I could not get the ball over the net. Therefore I tried to do a jump-serve. I still make a lot of unforced errors so I want to reduce that."
Japan's team manager, Yuko Arakida, is very impressed with what she has seen so far, and knows there is more to come from Oyama, who bears her first name, Shuka, on her shirt as there's already one Oyama -- Athens Olympian Kana Oyama -- in the team.
"As a spiker she is very good and has a lot of potential," says Arakida, a member of Japan's gold medal-winning team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.
"As a volleyball player, though, she is inexperienced. She makes many unforced errors, but I think she will get better and better the more matches she plays.
"She came to volleyball quite late, at 18, so she does not know the game so much. This is why she is very curious and keen to experience everything, and why she enjoys her volleyball so much."
This is clear to see on and off the court. On it she is a natural leader, and a face of fierce determination can quickly give way to a broad smile of celebration; off it she has a bubbly personality, and, at a media day, frequently had a crowd of Japanese sports reporters laughing at her amusing comments and observations.
Team manager Arakida adds: "She is very outgoing and friendly. When we were playing in the Montreux Volley Masters in Switzerland in June, Wang Jiao was not among the 12 members. So she went up into the second floor of the stand and gathered together a big group of schoolboys and schoolgirls and got them to cheer for the Japan team."
So can the former Olympic champion Arakida detect any Chinese characteristics in Oyama's game, even though she did not play the sport in her native country.
"Her style is slightly Chinese," she says. "For example the posture of defence is the typical Chinese way."
But, thanks to volleyball, Oyama is perfectly at home in Japan with her parents.
"Now I feel Japanese because I have lived in Japan for many years," says Oyama, who received citizenship in 2002.
And when she is asked what will happen when she plays for Japan against China, she has no doubts.
"We will beat them!" she says.
Japan beating the reigning Olympic champions?
Now that's confidence.
[Fact File]
Name: Shuka Oyama
Number: 14
Date of birth: September 25, 1980.
Place of birth: Fushun, Liaoning, China.
Hometown: Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture.
Height: 1.82 metres
Weight: 67 kg
Spike: 3.15 metres
Block: 3.03 metres
Club: Hisamitsu Springs
Chinese name: Wang Jiao
