Foreign Coaches: A Landmark at China's National Games

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 25, 2001

Foreign Coaches: A Landmark at China's National Games

Never before were so many foreign faces witnessed at a domestic sports meet as at the 9th National Games. In fact, the diversity of international presence at the quadrennial event, which is to wrap up Sunday, has become a landmark of the two-week sports gathering.

After capturing the title of men's team saber, the excited fencers from Tianjin rushed to a short Russian and tossed him up to the air in elation and gratitude. The Russian was Golubev Yvgeny, who and another Russian fencing coach, Fladimir, were invited to coach guide the Tianjin lads for the games since last May.

Traditionally not strong in fencing, the Tianjin fencing team only aimed at top eight, according to Li Xing, the Chinese coach of the team. But under the guidance of the two Russian coaches, who used to be ace fencers themselves, Li said the team made a rapid progress over the past few months, winning men's saber team title and placed fourth in women's epee team event.

Milorad Kosanovic from Yugoslavia, head coach of Liaoning men's soccer team, was the very first foreign coach to lead a Chinese provincial team to the national games and win. Under his coaching, Liaoning had a score of five wins against one loss during the 11- day national games tournament finals, for which 12 teams had qualified. Liaoning's cyclist Jiang Cuihua, was also grateful to her Russian coach after winning the gold in women's Olympic sprint, and a French coach made Beijing's Jiang Yonghua into a "dark horse " to time the best Asian record in the women's 500m time trial.

Active at the venues during the games are coaches from France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Yugoslavia and other countries, who have been offering expertise in sports ranging from fencing, archery, trampoline, cycling, archery, soccer, synchronized swimming to trampoline. In all these sports, China is rather weak and the foreign coaches are appreciated for their experienced guidance and dedication.

Zhang Xiaoshi, director of the Tianjin fencing team, admired the Russian coaches for their training approaches and tactics. " They instilled self-confidence into the athletes by encouraging them to attack," he said. "In contrast, we used to prefer a more conservative stance by mostly being on the guard."

Zhang Qing, an official from the State General Administration of Sports in charge of aquatic sports, observed that most of teams steered by foreign coaches showed considerable improvement in their performances. "It really pays off to have foreign coaches with us," he said, referring to the relatively high salaries for them. Zhang regarded employing foreign coaches as "a short-cut" to narrow the gap between Chinese and top-level athletes in the world, as evidenced at the latest national games.

The organizers of the 9th National Games have also invited 15 foreign judges and umpires to officiate events of field hockey, softball, figure skating, water polo and equestrian, which is believed to boost the sporting spirit of fair play and make Chinese athletes better accustomed to their future showcase outside China.

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