Chinese Head Coach Confident of Upcoming Gymnastics Worlds

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 15, 2003

Chinese Head Coach Confident of Upcoming Gymnastics Worlds

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After taking a smooth podium training, Chinese head coach Huang Yubin Wednesday expressed his confidence of good performances from his men disciples in the 37th world gymnastics championships to be officially opened Friday evening.

Despite a fifth place finish in the last championships, Huang confirmed the expectations that China is one of the hottest contenders for the men's team title.

"The few injury problems the team had to deal with in the recent past, were over and everybody seems ready to enter the qualification contest," said Huang.

For the last 20 years, the Chinese have won the men's world team title five times in 1983 (Budapest), 1994 (Dortmund), 1995 (Sabae), 1997 (Lausanne) and 1999 (Tianjin).

However, at the 2001 world championships, in Ghent, Belgium, China only fieled in a second best team due to a schedule conflict with the national games. Yet, 16-year-old Feng Jing took the individual all-around title while teammate Xiao Qin got the silverfrom the pommel horse.

This year, China has a strong line-up in Anaheim, with four 2000 Olympic winning team members of Li Xiaopeng, also Olympic champion on parallel bars and 2002 world champion on vault and parallel bars, Yang Wei, also runner-up in the all-around in Sydney, Xing Aowei and Huang Xu.

Other team members are Liang Fuliang, Teng Haibin and Xiao Qin,the silver medalists on pommel horse both at the 2001 world championships in Ghent and the 2002 world apparatus Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.

On China's biggest challengers for the team title, Huang said that "I would mention the United States on the first place, because they have a good team and because they will compete on a home ground. This is a great advantage for them and I am sure they will not miss the chance. I also expect Russia, Romania and Belarus to fight for the team medals."

The Chinese head coach also picked up Yang Wei as the best chance in the Chinese team to win the men's individual all-around title, saying that "this would definitely be Yang Wei! He was the silver medalist in the all-around in Sydney and won the bronze medal on vault in Debrecen last year. He does not have a weak apparatus and is very consistent in his performances."

However, he was quick to add that "anything might happen in the following days, but potentially, so far, Yang Wei seems to be the most serious challenger for the individual all-around title."

Talking about the 6-3-3 formula in the team final, Huang said: "I am quite happy with this competition format (three gymnasts compete, all the three results count toward the final team total).I believe that we will be able to go through the team final smoothly, with minimum mistakes. The final is the biggest test of the team's stability, and the rule is valid for all the team finalists. Whoever is stable on the day, they will win."

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