Sports club 4.25 of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on March 11 to compete in the annual International Women’s Volleyball Championships VTV-Binh Dien Cup 2015.

The early arrival of the DPRK club, which is judged as one of the strong contenders for the title, shows their determination to achieve a good result at the tournament.

After a week-long period of training at the national sports training centre in HCM City, the DPRK players will travel to the central province of Quang Tri where the championship will kick off on March 21 and last until March 29.

Five foreign teams will compete at the event, according to the General Department of Sports and Physical Training.

They include the Malaysian national team, the DPRK’s sports club 4.25, the Fujian club from China, Kazakhstan’s Astana club and Japan’s Tenri University’s team.

They will compete against four leading local clubs – VTV-Binh Dien Long An, Thong tin-LienVietPost Bank, VietinBank and Tien Nong Thanh Hoa - for prizes totally valued at 43,200 USD.

The champions will pocket 15,000 USD, the runners-up 10,000 USD and the third-ranked team 6,000 USD. Several individual awards, worth 500 USD each, will be also given during the tournament.

The annual volleyball competition made its debut in 2004 but Vietnamese teams were victorious only in four out of 11 occasions.-VNA