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Liu Xiang won a bronze medal in 110m hurdle at
last year's indoor world championships.
(newsphoto/file) |
How many gold medals for China in
Athens?
China grabbed 28 gold medals and finished at a historical third place
behind the United States and Russia in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. To repeat
that gold-medal spree, or even
exceed the achievements in Sydney, is quite beyond most predictions for
the Athens-bound national selectees of China.
Since Sydney, China has tried to make progress in some medal- rich
sports of Olympics, such as in the track and
field, swimming and aquatics. The national sports authority
pushed hard in the last four years on a developing project called "the 119
Project", which refers to the 119 gold medals in the aforementioned sports. The outcome,
however, is not cheerful.
China's prospect on the track stays one after four-year program, as
highflying hurdler Liu Xiang
shoulders the hope of China's athletics this time.
Wang Liping claimed an unexpected gold medal four years ago in the
women's 20km walking event, the only gold for China in the track and field
competition, which is the biggest medal-bounded event in the Games.
The 21-year-old Liu, who finished third at last year's indoor world
championships as well as at the outdoor worlds, clinched his first win in
the Osaka Grand Prix in May after beating American sprinter Allen Johnson with a season-best
and Asian record of 13. 06 seconds.
Walking event is another sport that the Chinese athletic team can pin
their hope on, but the sport is far more unpredictable with the
possibility of a participant being fouled
out at right a last second.
The women swimmers, led by world champion Luo Xuejuan, carry some
expectations for their success in butterfly, medley and medley relay at last year's
Barcelona Championships. But the Olympic pool could be the battlefield
between the surging American team and Australian powerhouse.
With no outstanding progress made by Chinese in the centerpiece of
Olympics, most of the possible golds will still come from their
traditional strong events, such as shooting, gymnastics, diving, table
tennis, badminton, weightlifting and Judo.
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World champion
Li Xiaopeng plays a vault.
(newsphoto) | Chinese gymnasts, who
snatched three golds in Sydney, remains hot favorite amid the rise of new
forces, the United States and Japan, as well as the fall of traditional
tycoon Russia.
Daring predictions have been made for Chinese gymnasts with a possible
collection of five golds, as in men's team, Li Xiaopeng' s parallel bars and vault, Teng Haibin's pommel horse and women's beam by Fan Ye, repeating the sweet
surprises in last years Anaheim world championships.
Chinese divers also face unprecedented challenges from improving
opponents and the unsteady form of themselves. The new spearheads, Tian
Liang, who suffered both individual and synchronized platform defeats at last
month's Mexico Super Final, and Guo Jingjing, who is recovering from an
ankle injury, could yet guarantee a repeat of the undisputed domination in
Sydney with five golds.
In weightlifting, China's women team, who took a clean sweep of four
golds in the Sydney Games, sit again in the driving seat but their
supremacy has been toughly challenged by their neighbors Thailand, DPR
Korea and Indonesia.
The Chinese paddlers, who made wrap-ups in Atlanta and Sydney, and
their fellow shuttlers, who harvested four golds out of five in Sydney,
are set to match on toward the peak as the Chinese badminton team eyes on
pocketing all even in the once lagging men' s doubles which was left as
the sole regret for China in Sydney's badminton event.
And in shooting, Xu Haifeng, head coach of Chinese shooting team, holds
a handful of ace shooters in his roster though some of them seem to be in
their best form. The withdraw of Yang Ling, men 's running target champion
in Atlanta and Sydney who tore his Achilles's tendon on July 17, came as
the latest hit for the Chinese shooting team.
With competitors of all their superior events in good form, China will
realize a closest wild guess between 21 and 24 gold medals, while one or
two more addition might be reached by other events with luck.
"Our target is to ensure our leading position in the second group," Li
Furong, vice Chef-de-Mission of China, said.
"Specially, I think we can win some 20 gold medals, and it's very
difficult to capture what we earned in Sydney," he
added.
(China Daily) |