Liu Xiang not in form for the worlds
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-03 05:58

Team building

Including Liu, a team of 35 elite Chinese athletes will be sent to Helsinki in order to gain more experience in big international events.

Feng Shuyong, vice-director of China's Athletics Administrative Centre, stated no heavy medal task has been put onto the shoulders of the squad.

"It's very hard to predict how many medals our athletes could win," said Feng. "Let's leave that to the athletes. We will be satisfied if they perform their best."

Among the 35-strong squad, only seven are new faces at the worlds but most of them are young enough to wait for glories in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"The main aim of the Chinese team this time is practicing for the 2008 Beijing Games," said Feng. "The world championship is the most important international competition between the two Olympics so we should relish the opportunity for these young athletes to practice and to get to know more about our rivals."

Hopes for glory

Although the Chinese team will go to the worlds with a low-key attitude, there are still key events in which they hope to make breakthroughs.

Together with Liu's 110m hurdles, other China's hopeful events are women's long distance running, which earned China the other Olympic gold medal last year by Xing Huina in 10,000m; women's hammer, in which young thrower Zhang Wenxiu has strong potential; and race walking, traditionally a strong event of China that is seeing a bit of a revival.

With the top three competitors from China's National Race Walking Championships men's 50km event breaking the Asian record in March, Chinese walkers have made great progress recently, which has given them medal hopes for the worlds.

While in the women's running, Xing, the surprise winner at last year's Olympic Games, is facing some troubles.

"Xing does not feel very well and she is slower than before the Olympics. I don't believe she can win this time," said Feng.

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