(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-27 19:28

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - China says a weightlifting whitewash at next year's Beijing Olympics is highly unlikely despite winning close to half the titles at the world championships.

Even with a host of new faces and notable absentees, China managed to repeat their 2006 world championships feat by winning 21 of the 45 gold medals up for grabs in Chiang Mai.

However, their coaches are reluctant to show their cards ahead of Beijing, insisting their current team is the finest they have to offer and no big guns will be wheeled out next year.

"This is our best team -- it's the best we've had for two years, and nobody is missing," senior coaches He Cheng told Reuters.

"But the Olympic team is not set in stone. We have more time for more training and preparation. We don't know if this will be the Olympic team. It may change a little, it might change a lot."

Mah Wenhui, the head coach of the women's team, said that even with home advantage next year, China could not expect an avalanche of gold medals.

"China has reached its limit here, we won't be able to emulate this in Beijing," he told reporters.

"It will be difficult to improve on this. We have to maintain what we have, and that will be very, very difficult."

China Dominant

China have dominated weightlifting for the last decade and won 10 of the 15 titles available at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, with the number of events restricted to 15, China won a third of the gold medals on offer.

World records tumbled so often at the 1998 Asian Games that the secretary general of the International Weightlifting Federation Tomas Ajan complained that China was making the sport one-sided and predictable.

Zhao Qingkui, former head coach of Chinese men's team, said that despite further gold medals and world records from the more experienced lifters this week, the Olympic focus should be on its youngsters, suggesting China may have more in store next year.

"There are a lot of promising young lifters in the national team now ... what they need is not the ability but the chance to show their power," China's Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

"(But) if these veterans suddenly get injured just ahead of the Olympics, what shall we do then? We must renew the team now for the Beijing Olympics."