China beat India 1-0 in the final round of pool games of the Women's Hockey World Cup on Wednesday to finally put an end to a disastrous run of four consecutive losses.

Forward Fu Baorong clinically poked the ball past Indian goalkeeper Dipika Murty in the 25th minute to help end China's nightmare which culminated in a 6-1 trouncing by the Netherlands on Tuesday.

China, tipped as one of the serious title-contenders, put on a string of eye-boggling and awful performance from the off as they lost to England, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands in a row.

"We left too much to be desired during the tournament, such as the physical fitness, the teamwork and so on," said Chinese head coach Kim Changback.

"Something went awry with our training before the World Cup, just quite a lot of problems, it's hard to specify," the Korean said.

China's impressive display in the Champions Trophy tournament which was held in July in Amsterdam , where they finished runners-up to Germany, led to a widespread prediction that they would at least reach the final in the World Cup.

Daunting physical fitness and suffocating pressure game play, which used to be China's idiosyncrasies, disappeared when they fielded a tired and sloppy outfit for the World Cup.

What was underlying their sudden loss of forms?

"After the Champions Trophy, we went to Australia and 10 players caught cold there. They failed to recover in time for the World Cup, and that is the main reason why my players are not physically fit, " Kim said.

China will have to put the World Cup fiasco behind them as Asian Games, to be held in early December in Doha, Qatar, are looming large upon them.

"For China, I think the Asian Games are more important than World Cup, we'll improve our training system and teamwork in preparation for the games," Kim said.

"With less than two months left, I have no time to rebuild my team, I will bring almost all the players here to Doha," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2006)