Sun under the gun as Maher's legacy lives on

Sun Fengwu is feeling the pressure of trying to keep pace with his foreign predecessor as the new head coach of China's national women's basketball team.

"I feel the strain, but I am confident I can take the team to the next level over the next few years," Sun, a popular point guard who rose to captain the men's team in the late 1980s, said yesterday in Beijing.

Australian Tom Maher led China's women to a fourth-place finish at last year's Beijing Olympics and expectations of the team are now at an all-time high. Sun is expected to win both this year's Asian Championships and next year's Asian Games before moving his players onto bigger international commitments.