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China pins hopes in traditional strongpoints
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.
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.
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. 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.
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. |
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