Chef de Mission Satisfied with Chinese Delegation's Performance at EAGDuan Shijie, Chef de Mission of the Chinese delegation at the 3rd East Asian Games which concluded Sunday in Osaka, said he was quite satisfied with the performances of the Chinese athletes.Duan, also vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said Chinese athletes, especially those international debutants, did quite a good job in the games. China won a total of 85 gold, 48 silver and 58 bronze medals to top the medal table, followed by hosts Japan in the second place at 61-65-65. South Korea placed third at 34-46-32. The Chinese delegation got most of these gold medals from athletics, weightlifting, gymnastics, swimming and judo. They also triumphed in the team events like the men's and women's basketball and the women's volleyball. Duan Shijie said Japan also did well in the games. Japan rested some of their top athletes but still won 61 gold medals and would definitely pose a great threat to China in the 2002 Asian Games. Duan Shijie said China took the East Asian Games as a chance to launch their preparation for the Athens Olympic Games and the Chinese delegation's performances showed that campaign had already got a good beginning. China fielded at the East Asian Games a delegation consisted mainly of young and promising athletes. Many of them had achieved very good results and some of them bettered their personal bests at the games. Among the Chinese gold medalists at the games, Gu Junjie, a 16- year-old, won the gold medal at the men's triple jump while female swimmers Yang Yu, Qi Hui and Xu Yanwei, all in the age of 16, triumphed in their respective events. Duan Shijie hoped that the young athletes would benefit from the experiences and further improve their standard to become more competitive in high level international events. |
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