Hua Tian ready for first outing at Asiad

INCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's first Olympic rider Alex Hua Tian will compete in his first Asian Games Eventing Tuesday here, and he said he is excited to represent his homeland for the first time in Asiad.

The 25-year-old will start his show on the Eventing Dressage at the Dream Park Equestrian Venue, making amend of his absence of the last version in Guangzhou where he failed to compete with no suitable horses.

His new horse, Temujin, an eight-year-old horse, will accompany him for the one-star competition.

"Temujin is probably the youngest and least experienced horse at these Games, so we have to be realistic with the expectations. It could be go any way, it could be really good, which I know he can be, to be very competitive, or maybe things fall to pieces," Hua Tian said on Monday after his training.

Hua Tian, half Chinese and half British, got his fame as the first Chinese rider in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

"I'm proud to be half Chinese and half British and I'm proud to be representing China in the sport that is very British. I'm very proud to be competing for China at the world level, the first one at the championship, first one in the Olympic Games. Everything about me with China is exciting," he said.

After finishing the World Equestrian Games at Normandy, France,

two weeks ago, the first championship since Beijing 2008, Hua Tian is more confident with the upcoming Asian Games.

"In Normandy, I made one mistake near the end of the course, otherwise I'll have finished. This time in the Asian championship,

there is only one star. My horse needs experience, so I think he needs this game. I just took the course today. It's very tricky, very technical."

"The Asian Games are very meaningful to me. That's going to be the first time that I have a team, and in the future, we have many more times to be a team," he added.

Training and living in London, Hua Tian said he is happy to see the fast development of the sport in Asia.

"It's amazing of the development in all nations in Asia from four years ago. The dressage horses are more valuable, stronger and well-trained with better trainers. Eventing now there are more teams to be competing, very competitive in one star. At the start it's like one nation is good and the rest is catching but now 3-4 nations are very strong in one star."

Hua Tian said he is very ready, mentally and physically, for the competition here.

"For me, this year's priority is very much the world championship. But now I'm here and very excited."