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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001

Chinese Athletics Eyes Breakthrough at 2008 Olympics

The Chinese athletics seemed to have made up their mind to star in a modern-version Cinderella tale at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The host is expected to show strength in almost all the Olympic sports, a factor which experts believe is key to the success of the Games.


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China is expected to show strength at 2008 Olympics

The Chinese athletics seemed to have made up their mind to star in a modern-version Cinderella tale at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China has long played a peripheral role in the world athletics arena, evidenced by the Edmonton world championship in August where China failed to make podium in any events.

Since Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympiad in July, there have been concerns that such athletics credentials will not be in proportion to the hosting status of China.

The host is expected to show strength in almost all the Olympic sports, a factor which experts believe is key to the success of the Games.

China's failure in track and field events

China wrapped up 28 golds to finish third in the overall medal tally at the Sydney Olympics last year, but pulled off only one gold in the women's walk race from the medal-rich athletics.

China did not break the athletics gold drought until the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, when Chen Yueling took the women's walk title, and in the following Games in Atlanta, the country could claim no more than one gold from the women's 5,000m.

"If no Chinese athlete enters any track and field finals at the2008 Olympics, what a crying shame it would be," Shang Xiutang, a senior official with the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), said on the sidelines of the ongoing ninth national games.

Uphill battle

But the Chinese athletes will face an uphill battle in the future Olympiad, judging from what they have fared in the current national games, which is the highest-level event in China.

Whether in track or field events, there have been no sparkling performances except China's favorite women's walk racing, women's triple jump and women's hammer, where the Asian records were narrowly bettered.

  • Ma's Army not in best shape
    • The well-known Ma's Army guided by the maverick coach Ma Junren,who dazzled the world by bringing up a squad of runners as if from nowhere to break a string of world records in the women's 1,500, 3,000 and 10,000 meters in the 1993 Stuttgart world championships, seemed no longer in its best shape, either.

    Dong Yanmei, whose fourth placing in women's 5,000m at the Edmonton World Championships was the best for China, failed to hit the form which brought her world record-breaking performance in the last national games in Shanghai.

    "Don't think too much from Ma's Army," Ma Junren said to the media. "I do not think the Chinese women long distance runners are able to shock the world again."

  • Tougher measures in doping control
    • Analysts said that the athletics competition is lukewarm partly because the national games have got tougher in the fight against doping.

    But the athletics authorities put on a positive spin, saying that tougher measures in doping control of the games will do nothing but good to the development of the Chinese athletics.

    "The athletics is not high-level but it is pure, so that we could concentrate ourselves in training," Shang said.

    To give priorities to some events

    Shang said that in view of the 2008 Olympics, priorities will be given to those events which are likely to make a breakthrough in the world arena.

    He named in the priority list such events as walk race, women'smiddle- and long-distance running, women's long jump and high jump,women's sprint and marathon.

    "We worked out the list after reviewing what China was slotted in each athletics event of the world, and we will focus our resources on them," said Shang.

    And the athletes in these events will be put under the CAA-sponsored training camps immediately after the ninth national games is over.

    China will also take part in such events as the 2002 Asian Games, World Championships, World Youth Championships and Asian Championships as part of the preparations for the 2004 Olympiad inAthens.

    Gold Question

    The gold-thirst Chinese athletics won't be goldless in the Beijing Olympics, and it is most likely to hit gold in the women'swalk race, said Shang.

    "But if we just pin our hope on the women's walk, it would be afailure for the Chinese athletics, for it means we fail to achieveany thing following the Sydney Olympics," he said.

    He said that not only should China win golds in women's walk, it also need break ground in such blue-ribbon competitions as marathon and sprint events.

    "We shall have finalists in a dozen track events, and win bronze or silver medal in some of them," Shang said. "That is the way for us to reach the target for the 2008 Olympics."



    1992 Olympics Event: 10K Walk , Chen Yueling, CHN , Time: 44.32

    Ma Junren

  • 1998 Ma is treated in hospital for mental problems


  • 2001 Ma is named China's deputy head coach for the world championships.



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