China has named Liu Peng as new director to replace Yuan Weimin to head the State General Administration of Sport, the All-China Sports Federation said in its official website on Thursday.

The decision was announced in a congress attended by state councilor Chen Zhili who praised Yuan for his 47-year efforts in the sport circle with great successes.

"Yuan is stepping down from the sports leadership due to his age, but his contribution will be put into the great history of Chinese sport," councilor Chen said, explaining that the personnel replacement is a normal reshuffle.

Liu, born in 1951, was the secretary of Secretariat of Communist Youth League (CYL) of China Central Committee from 1993, and became deputy secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) in Sichuan province in 2003.

The 65-year-old Yuan, a former volleyball player for the Chinese national team, has coached the Chinese women to reap all grand titles in the volleyball world during the 80s.

He was appointed deputy director in 1998 and became director of State General Administration of Sport in 2000.

Source: Xinhua