| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 18, 2001 |
Chinese Fencers Target Olympic Honor at Athens Games |
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Chinese fencers are determined to repeat their Olympic honor achieved by a star fencer 17 years ago, by winning a gold medal at the 2004 Games in Athens, a leading official with the State General Administration of Sports said Saturday in Jiangmen.
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Chinese fencers are determined to repeat their Olympic honor achieved by a star fencer 17 years ago, by winning a gold medal at the 2004 Games in Athens, a leading official with the State General Administration of Sports said Saturday in Jiangmen.
Luan Jujie, native of Nanjing of east China's Jiangsu Province,became the first ever Asian Olympic fencing champion when she tookthe women's individual foil title in Los Angeles in 1984. She retired and immigrated to Canada in 1998. In 1999, Luan was namedas one of the country's top 50 sports stars since the founding of the People's Public of China.
In spite of an Olympic gold and a silver medal from last year'sSydney Games as well as victories in this year's world university games in Beijing, Chinese fencers have long been hunger of anothertop Olympic honor.
Wang Wei, said that the national sports authorities had worked out an overall program for the Athens Games. A national team is set to be established in December to start training for next year's Asian Games in Pusan and the Athens Olympics.
The Chinese team has set a target to level with hosts South Korea for an identical number of five gold medals in Pusan as at the Bangkok Games in 1998. Chinese fencers would focus on the men's and women's foil as well as the women's epee events in Athens, Wang said.
There is an uncertain factor for the Athens Games -- women's saber event, which might be listed as an Olympic event it approvedby the International Olympic Committee. China and South Korea arethought to be all square in the event in terms of standard, the official predicted.
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