Canoeists test waters at Shunyi
Ten days is not much of a rest for athletes recovering from a world championship.
But the top canoeists have dashed from Duisburg, Germany, to Beijing for the 2007 Canoe/Kayak Flatwater, an Olympic test event, at the Shunyi Aquatic Sports Center.
To many competitors it may prove to be more important than any other pre-Olympic meet.
"The first goal for canoeists here in Beijing will be testing the water in Shunyi," Yang Wenjun, China's first canoe gold medalist, said.
The 23-year-old from south China's Jiangxi Province paired with Meng Guanliang from Zhejiang to snatch a surprise gold medal in the men's C2500m at Athens three years ago.
Yang has focused on the men's single 500m since 2005, while Meng resumed his doubles career with Gong Yongjun after a long spell.
Both Yang and Meng qualified for the Beijing Games, but China's general performance fell short of expectation during the Flatwater Racing World Championships in Duisburg, where the team picked up just five tickets to the Beijing Games.
Women's kayak medal hopeful Zhang Hongyan must make another attempt at the upcoming Olympic qualifiers for Asian canoeists.
"The world championships may drag me back a little," Yang told China Daily yesterday, taking time out from a solid build-up to next August's Olympics under German coach Josef Capousek.
"But my teammates and I will do what we can. No doubt, the faster I can go in this tournament, the better."
Yang also said he was looking forward to launching another challenge to his main opponents in the test event starting today.
"Andreas Dittmer from Germany is a really experienced canoeist," he said. "But in Duisburg, I was just 0.3 seconds behind him."
The test event held at the world-class Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park this year features a total of 226 athletes from 32 countries.
(China Daily 08/23/2007 page22)
