SPORTS> Team China
Former IBU deputy suggests one-sport for Chinese biathletes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-02-02 15:44

JILIN, Northeast China - Former International Biathlon Union (IBU) vice chainman Ubaldo Prucker said on Friday that the Chinese biathletes should concentrate on the sport alone.

As there are not many Chinese taking part in the skiing sports, many Chinese skiers have to do biathlon and cross country at the same time, including Zhang Chengye, silver medalist of the men's 10km sprint, Wang Chunli, champion of women's freestyle cross-country sprint, and Liu Xianying, triple winner in biathlon 7.5km sprint, 15km individual and 4x6km relay.

"In Europe, the biathletes may have training of cross-country for some time but in the real competitions they never race both sports, " said Prucker, a former long distance runner.

There are around 30 professional biathletes in the country, mainly from the Chinese army. In China, there is only one training base for the sport.

"Biathlon is an exciting sport and also a difficult sport. I do suggest Chinese women only focus on a single sport, it is helpful for them to catch up with the world's top athletes," the Italian said, adding that Chinese women can be ranked fifth in the world, other rivals may include those from Norway, Austria, Germany and the United States.

Chinese biathletes are set to compete at the World Championships 2007 and the last three stops of the World Cup series this season after finishing the January 28 - February 4 Asian Winter Games biathlon events.

The World Championships are slated for February 2 to 11 at Antholz, Italy. That means the Chinese biathletes, now still competing in Asian Winter Games, will miss the sprint and pursuit events in the initial competitions of the world championships.

The team will then move to Finland, Norway and Russia for the remaining World Cup series following the world championships.

"Chinese women biathletes can be the world number one someday, but the men athletes still have a long way to go," he said.