Popular Chinese women's volleyball head coach Chen Zhonghe will not be leading the national team to the 2012 London Olympics after the sport's governing body announced yesterday that he is to be replaced by 42-year-old Cai Bin.

The older Chen is credited with single-handedly engineering the rise of the team to rank alongside the world's elite since taking over the helm in 2001, a success story that makes his sudden departure even more of a surprise. Prior to their gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the team had experienced a major world title drought for almost two decades since enjoying their heyday in the 1980s.

Chen rescued the team from their slump by rediscovering the kind of form that saw them win their first World Championship in 1981 before going on to rule the sport for the next five years.