The 34th world gymnastics championships kicks off Friday in Tianjin with a total of 651 athletes from 73 countries and regions participating in this event which made its debut in China.

　 Chinese president Jiang Zemin declared open the championships.

　 Bruno Grandi, president of the Federation of the International Gymnastics, hailed the competition as "a very special championships" which is also the qualifier for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

　 The hosts have set their eyes on winning the fourth straight men's team title and snatch the first top honor in women's competition.

　 But the road to the champions is expected to be quite long and tough as a pack of favorites are posing stern challenges and aims for more than a ticket for the 2000 Games.

　 Russia will be the biggest hurdle for China to overcome although the history is on the side of the hosts who snatched three straight men's team titles with only one slipping to Russia since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

　 Such teams as Japan, Belarus and France are also the threats for the medals with Australia, Canada, Germany all within the shot at one of the 12 berths for the Olympics.

　 The women's team title will be contested among the top three teams including Romania, Russia and the hosts, with Ukraine and the United States also having a chance for the medals.

　 The prospect for Chinese women's team is less certain as the hosts only field a team of mostly inexperienced girls with some veterans like Bi Wenjing and Qui Yuanyuan absent for injuries or bad shape.

　 The Individual event will see a would-be dramatic competition as some luminaries are eying for making history of their own.

　 Russian Svetlana Khorkina will defend her title to be the first back-to-back women's world champion since Shannon Miller did it in 1993 and 1994 while Ivan Ivankov of Belarus are poised to become the first man to ever win three world all-around titles.

　 With one gold in the beam event, Liu Xuan, the only veteran in the women's line-up for the championships, will become the first Chinese women gymnast to garner two world titles since Ma Yanhong achieved such feat in 1984 Olympics.

　 In the later stage the Extraordinary Congress 1999 of the 72nd FIG General Assembly will also be held from 13-14 with a medical symposium slated in the following two days.

　 More voices calling for gymnastics reform have become bigger as the new Code of Points have incurred great controversy in the gymnastics field.

　 Grandi, however, put the dispute as a "natural form of progress " as he made clear that the reform will go on for the "evolution (of gymnastics) is quicker than that of our rules and regulations".

　 "One of our task is to create a shorter format of gymnastics competitions in order to satisfy Television's and audience particular requirements," said the president at the opening press conference for the championships on Thursday. (Xinhua)