China sends nine walkers to Athens's race walking

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, March 20, 2004

China sends nine walkers to Athens's race walking

Nine Chinese walkers will compete in this summer's Athens Olympic Games, said an athletics official with the country's sports governing body Saturday in Guangzhou.

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Nine Chinese walkers will compete in this summer's Athens Olympic Games, said an athletics official with the country's sports governing body Saturday in Guangzhou.

Shen Chunde, vice director of the athletics section of the State General Sports Administration, said they would select the Athens-bound athletes mainly based on their performances at the national race walking championships here.

"We will choose the Athens squad mainly according to their performance at these championships," said Shen.

Shen said Chinese walkers will participate in women's 20km roadwalk and men's 20km and 50km road walk, to each of which China will send three athletes respectively. The nine lucky ones will bechosen from more than 100 athletes nationwide.

In today's action, Han Yucheng from Liaoning province took the men's 20 kilometers road walk title in one hour 19 minutes and 30seconds, followed by his teammate Zhu Hongjun in 1:20:10. Liu Yunfeng from the national team came third.

"I am satisfied with our young athletes' results today. After more than three months of hard training, I am not surprised to seethey made such big progress in the race," said Shen.

According to Shen, in order to get the chance to go to Athens, Chinese walkers need not only finish the top three places in the national championships, but also have a good training record as well as a good performance in international competitions in 2003.

The three-day national race championship, kicking off Saturday,attracted more than three hundred athletes from all over China.

After the national championships, Chinese walkers will go to Zhejiang province to have a one-month training, preparing for the May 1-2 World Cup in Germany.

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