|
Olympics-China's gymnasts poised to land multiple gold
2004-07-13
Chinese gymnast Xing Aowei practices on horizontal bar at the national sports training center in Beijing July 9, 2004. China's gymnastics team is one of the favourites to win the gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games |
|
BEIJING - Olympic and world champion Li Xiaopeng is ready to spearhead a strong Chinese challenge at next month's Athens Games."We have set a minimum target of two or three gold medals," head coach Huang Yubin said during a break in a workout session. Chinese gymnasts grabbed three golds, including the country's first men's team title, at the 2000 Olympics. The 22-year old Li captured gold in the parallel bars in Sydney and has been untouchable on the bars and the vault -- his favourite disciplines -- over the last two seasons. At the 2003 world championships in Anaheim, China topped the medals table with five titles. Li finished as the most successful gymnast at the event with an individual haul of three golds. "I'm feeling all right, but I'm not at my peak because I'm keeping my best for competition," Li said, his arms covered with bruises and scabs from relentless training. "We're confident about our chances. We tell ourselves, grab the team medal and then we'll all do even better afterwards." Under a banner reading 'Train hard for the glory of the nation', the Olympic hopefuls are practising at least eight hours a day in their training centre in Beijing before they travel to Paris on July 28 for final preparations. Zhang Tiantian, who will be making her first Games appearance, crouched in a sustained squat while another tiny gymnast launched off a vault into a pool of soft, coloured foam. The 18-strong Olympics team includes six reserves and the starting line-up is almost the same as in last year's world championships. Only Zhang Yufei was omitted because of injury and Kang Xin was put in the reserves. They were replaced by Cheng Fei and Lin Li in the women's squad. "To be honest, our women are not as impressive as the men. If the women can get a team medal, that would be a pretty successful result," said coach Huang. Four years ago, Liu Xuan's balance beam exercise secured the only gold for the Chinese women. A silver and three bronze medals completed their tally in Sydney. Two of the team's most likely medallists in Athens are 2003 balance beam world champion Fan Ye and Zhang Nan. "We're strongest on the balance beam but that is the event where the unexpected is most likely to occur," said women's coach Lu Shanzhen. Huang believes the youth of his team, particularly on the women's side, could prove to be advantage in the country's long-term goals as the athletes are likely to provide the backbone of a formidable squad at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Reuters
Olympics-China's gymnasts poised to land multiple gold (2004-07-13)Gymnastics-China's Li wins men's parallel gold (2000-09-25)2 (11285)
| 
