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Chinese Teen Sweeps First Round Of Women's World Team Match

The Chinese team is favored to win the Jeongganjang Cup after teenager Song Ronghui(right) 1P swept all five opponents in the just-concluded first stage. The Jeongganjang is a win-and-continue tournament between five-member teams of women pros from China, Japan, and Korea. There are five games in each of three stages (the third stage can be less than five if more than one player remains on the winning team). Song, who won a gold metal in the individual women's section of the recent World Minds Sports Games, defeated Lee Daehyeoi 3P and Lee Hajin 3P of Korea as well as Kato Keiko 6P and Mannami Kana 4P of Japan. Song will still be up at the start of the second stage in January in Seoul, Korea, with the other two teams now down to three players each. Korea still has Park Jieun 9P and Lee Minjin 5P, who are strong players with a lot of titles--Lee took the last five games last year to win the Cup for the Koreans. The Japanese also have experienced title holders yet to play. The Koreans have won this event four times and the Chinese twice. The best result for the Japanese second place in 2007.