Chinese Swimming Coach Attributes Success to High Spirit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, October 06, 2002

Chinese Swimming Coach Attributes Success to High Spirit

Chinese men swimmers, who have for long lived under the shadow of their women counterparts, have achieved a great success in the 14th Asian Games with seven gold medals and three Asian records.

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Chinese men swimmers, who have for long lived under the shadow of their women counterparts, have achieved a great success in the 14th Asian Games with seven gold medals and three Asian records.

Zhao Ge, head coach of the Chinese swimming team, attributed the success to high spirit, saying that "our men swimmers made the breakthrough through pains-taking efforts, but what's the most important behind our success is the fighting spirit."

Liu Yu fired as the top gun in the Chinese team by taking the title in the men's 200m freestyle as Wu Peng followed the suit in the 200m butterfly, preventing Japanese swimmers from a clean sweep of all men's events on Tuesday, the second day of swimming competition at the games.

The 15-year-old Wu, who won three individual events including the 400m medley and 200m backstroke, became a giant-killer by trouncing a group of Japanese defending champions and Asian record holders in Busan.

"I want to show that our Chinese men swimmers can stand atop on the podium. I hope I can make a breakthrough in the world championships and Olympic Games," he said.

With a height of 1.97 meters, Wu is tipped as the Chinese Thorpe, an Australian who smashed a dozen of world records and captured world champions since the age of 14.

However, Wu disagreed with the assumption. "I am more versatile than Thorpe who is only concentrated on freestyle. I'd rather to be the Chinese Phelps than Thorpe."

Michael Phelps, the youngest swimmer of the American team at Sydney Olympic Games at the age of 15, held two world records in Wu's events -- the 200m butterfly and 400m medley.

The 17-year-old Phelps, world champion over 200m butterfly, collected three golds and two silvers at the Pan Pacific Championships in Yokohama, Japan last August.

Koji Ueno, Japanese national head coach also noticed the changes that the Chinese swimmers have shown in the Asiad and predicted a bright furture after their 11-20 upset to China on the comprehensive swimming gold standing.

"They are more relaxed but competitive. They are so young and so fast. If they keep the trend going, they will have a better chance to win medals at Athens and even Beijing Olympic Games," Ueno said.

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