BEIJING - With the retirement of basketball legend Yao Ming, who led the Chinese sports delegation to the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony, Liu Xiang and Sun Yang will spearhead the Chinese athletes next year in London in pursuit of another golden harvest.

Struggling hard in the last three years to recover from the foot injury that dragged him off the field in a full-packed Bird's Nest at the Beijing Games, star hurdler Liu Xiang is widely expected to repeat his title-winning feat in Athens Games in 2004, but senior sports official said that a medal of any color would be satisfactory.

"I think Liu is much more mature. He has recovered well from injury and has maintained good form this season," said Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) president Duan Shijie.

"I am convinced that he will achieve good results if he has a normal race. I think everybody will be satisfied whatever medal - gold, silver or bronze - he wins because he has spared no efforts in his sport."

The 28-year-old Liu, a former world record holder in the men's 110m hurdles, became China's most famous athlete after winning gold at the 2004 Olympic Games and 2007 Osaka World Championships.

But he winced in pain and limped off the track during the men's 110m hurdles first heat at the Beijing Games, leaving the 60,000-plus spectators at the Bird's Nest stadium and millions of TV audience in shock.

Three years after his sudden withdrawal with the Achilles injury, Liu regained honor after dramatically taking silver at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu this August.

Disrupted by Dayron Robles of Cuba running next at the last hurdles, Liu claimed a silver in 13.27, but he had already proved his competitiveness for London.

"I have been through two Olympic Games. It will be just another competition," said Liu Xiang. "I will try to get myself into good shape and we will see what happens."

Liu Xiang will not be the only hope for Chinese track and field team in London. Newly crowned world champion Li Yanfeng in the women's discus, hammer thrower Zhang Wenxiu and a bunch of young walk racers will share Liu's burden in charging for medals in London.

Also in the limelight is double world champion and men's 1,500m freestyle swimming world record holder Sun Yang, who is set to be another Chinese star in focus next summer in London.

The 20-year-old Sun became the most famous swimmer overnight by claiming the men's 800m and 1,500m freestyle gold medals at the Shanghai World Championships and broke the 1,500m freestyle world record held by Australian Grant Hackett for 10 years.

"I can still swim better in the 1,500m freestyle next year. My coach has set me a new target, but it's not the right time to release it now," said Sun, who will be a strong competitor in the men's 400m and 1,500m freestyle swimming at the London Games.

The Chinese swimmers reaped five golds, two silvers and seven bronzes at the Shanghai World Championships in July, harvesting their best results since 1994. Next year in London, it will not be surprising if they surpass their one-gold finish at the Beijing Games.

Three years ago in Beijing, athletes from gymnastics, weightlifting, diving, shooting, table tennis, badminton and judo contributed 39 out of 51 gold medals of the hosts. Looking ahead to London, these sports will continue to contribute medals to the Chinese delegation, but it will be difficult for them to maintain the dominance they showed on home soil.

For example, the Chinese gymnasts, who had snatched amazing nine golds at the Beijing Games, slipped to four golds, five silvers and three bronzes at this year's World Championships in Japan.

"The competition of the London Games will be really tough. We are going to face stiff challenge," said head coach Huang Yubin.

In weightlifting and Judo, Chinese also need to work really hard to gain as many as acquired in Beijing, while the teams of diving, shooting, table tennis and badminton are as powerful as ever.

"Generally speaking, we have maintained our advantage in the sports that Chinese athletes traditionally excel in, but there is no much room for them to improve or win more gold medals in these sports," said Cai Jiadong, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC).

Chinese athletes also won a handful of gold medals in archery, rowing, canoeing, wrestling three years ago at home, but their competitiveness in these sports has slid.

"We know that we will meet tough challenge next year in London, but we will try our best to keep China in the leading positions on the overall medal list," Cai added.

For Chinese ball teams, the road to London is not smooth. With early elimination of the soccer teams, the nation's only medal hope in team ball sports will be shouldered by their women's volleyball team, which won the bronze medal in Beijing three years ago.

Following lackluster performance in last year's World Championships and a disappointing bottom eighth finish at this year's World Grand Prix Finals in Macao, the Chinese women's volleyball team, led by new head coach Yu Juemin, surprisingly rebounded to win the title at the Asian Championships and the bronze medal at the World Cup in Japan.

"I strongly believe they will have a big chance to win a medal next year in London," said former head coach Chen Zhonghe, who guided China to back-to-back titles at the World Cup in 2003 and the Athens Games in 2004.

Without Yao Ming, is it possible for the Chinese men's basketball team to repeat their consecutive top eight finishes in Athens and Beijing?

It seems to be a Mission Impossible.

Robert Donewald Jr has just been sacked as head coach of Chinese Basketball Association's (CBA) Xinjiang Guanghui club. It's bad news for the American, but now he can focus on the Chinese national team and work out a plan to make them more competitive than when they sluggishly won the Asian Championships in Wuhan, China this summer.

Power forward Yi Jianlian, who is still struggling to keep his position in an NBA team, and former NBA player Wang Zhizhi, will lead the Chinese offense in the absence of Yao, but they obviously need more support from their teammates.