Mihail Dudas of Serbia competes during the long jump event of the men's decathlon at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu on Saturday. Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters

Chinese coach remains upbeat ahead of the London Olympics, even though runners from Kenya swept the medals in the women��s marathon at the worlds, Lei Lei reports from Daegu, South Korea

Maybe the Chinese women's marathon team isn't in trouble after all.

Even with two of its best runners sidelined with injuries, China won the team silver medal Saturday at the World Athletics Championships.

"There is still one year until the Olympics," said coach Liang Songli.

"Since we have several young talents, we still have a chance there.

"Our goal for the London Games is to strive for a medal, maybe even the gold medal."

Kenya won the team gold, sweeping the individual medals. China's Zhu Xiaolin finished sixth, clocking in at 2 hours, 29 minutes and 59 seconds. Teammate Wang Jiali was eighth at 2:30.25, while Chen Rong was 11th.

China finished at 7:31.34 hours collectively, just behind Kenya's 7:26.57.

With defending world champion Bai Xue and star veteran Zhou Chunxiu both out with injuries, Liang said he was happy with silver.

"Our goal is to reach the top three of the team competition, so the result is satisfactory," he said. "The marathon is in a difficult (position) right now, since most of our team members are young and lack experience in major events.

"There are less than 100 professional marathon runners in China, while the number is about 500 in Kenya and 300-400 in Japan. The Kenya runners are training on wild fields, which strengthens their running ability, but we have to train on streets."

To prepare for the World Championships and the Olympics, China sent six runners to Kenya for a short training at the beginning of the year. But, Liang said, the team still needs to lean on local coaches.

"We made an attempt to see whether it is because of the different physical conditions of people from different countries or the training methods of coaches. We realized (we) still have to depend on our own coaches," he said.

Liang said Zhou, the runner-up at the 2007 World Championships and the bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is recovering and will be back in time for Olympic trials next March, and Bai is also recovering.

"Zhou has to save her good form for the London Olympics, so she withdrew from (the World Championships) to give more chances to the young runners," Liang said.

"Bai is also under rehabilitation. Zhu finished fourth at the World Championships in 2007, as well as the Beijing Olympic Games and (is always reliable) in international events.

"The other young runners in this worlds lack experience and the ability to control the beats, but they still have the potential to improve. China still has a big chance in London."

(China Daily 08/28/2011 page8)