China looks beyond worlds to Beijing

Cheng Fei, vault and floor gold medalist at last year's World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, will look to defend her titles at the Worlds in Stuttgart, Germany, next month. Xinhua

The Olympic hosts say avoiding injury and trying out young gymnasts before the Games next year are more important than defending their eight world titles at the September 1-9 championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Olympic business is top of the agenda for the other competitors too because the championships are the last before the Games and serve as qualifiers. The top 12 teams at the world championships earn places for Beijing.

"Our prior goal is not winning the gold medals at the worlds but preventing injury ... because the 2008 Olympics are getting close," China head coach Huang Yubin told the country's official sports website www.sport.org.cn earlier this month.

"My biggest concern is unpredictable injuries before the Beijing Games."

Despite talk of gold medals taking a backseat, the Chinese are favorites to hold on to the men's and women's team titles they won last year in Aarhus, Denmark.

Their strength in depth is such that they will barely feel the absence of double Olympic and eight-times world champion Li Xiaopeng, a parallel bars specialist, who has a toe injury.

In the men's competition, the strongest challengers are likely to be Japan, Romania and Russia, whose battered confidence has been lifted by Maxim Deviatovsky's all-round gold at the European championships earlier this year.

The United States, silver medalists at the 2004 Olympics, needs to hope its dismal showing at last year's worlds was a blip if it want to qualify for Beijing.

A repeat of team's 13th place in the team standings would exclude it from the Olympics.

The Americans have a much better chance of medals in the women's event thanks to the emergence of 15-year-old Shawn Johnson, who won four golds at this year's Pan American Games, as well as the all-round title at the US nationals.

The Chinese women's team also has a new look to it, with four of the eight members competing at this level for the first time. Uneven bar specialist Li Ya has been ruled out with an elbow injury.

Romania has been boosted by the return of triple Olympic gold medalist Catalina Ponor, who has come out of retirement to head the squad. Without her at last year's worlds, the Romanian women failed to win a team medal for the first time in 25 years.

Italian Vanessa Ferrari will aim to defend her all-round title but could find Johnson is among those launching a strong challenge in a competition that should provide a good indication of podium finishes at next year's Olympics.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/31/2007 page19)