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Gymnasts ready to defend Olympic men's team title
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-10 09:37
The Chinese male gymnasts, who clinched the men's team golds in Sydney
Olympics and last year's world championships, are ready to defend the title in
Athens Olympics, Chinese team leader Gao Jian said here Monday.
"We have passed the tests of the time difference, hot weather, injuries,
equipment and accomodation," Gao told said in Athens.
"Now, all the six athletes are in good form and are confident of repeating
their glories in Athens," he added.
The Chinese team spent nine days training in France before arriving in Athens
on August 6, two days earlier than the arrival of the majority of the Chinese
delegation.
"The French tour and the earlier arrival help us to get used tothe time
difference and weather in Europe," coach Chen Xiong said.
"And all our athletes are familiar with the equipment for competition here as
we have performed on them many times in China," Chen said.
All the equipment for Athens Olympic gymnastics competition areprovided by
the Netherlands' world-famous company Janssen-Fritsen,which are widely used in
China.
"The only difference is the color of the equipment," Chen said,adding, "What
we used in China are painted with red color, but this time they are in white."
"But it has little impact on us," he noted.
As to the accomodation, Chen said, "For us, it is much better than the Sydney
Olympics where the rooms were crowdy and the food was not savory."
"It is a pity that Chinese food is not available in the dinninghall. But
there is a section for Asian meal which is quite acceptable for our athletes,"
Chen said.
"Four years ago in Sydney, most of our athletes could not get used to the
food there," he said.
The gymnastics competition of the Athens Olympic Games will kick off on
August 14 and its first gold medal (men's team) will be produced on August 16.
The Chinese line-up is Li Xiaopeng, Yang Wei, Xing Aowei, HuangXu, Teng
Haibin and Xiao Qin, the same as that in last year's world championships.
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