Asiad: China to dominate Games in Guangzhou
AFP, Oct 31, 2010, 09.26am IST
BEIJING: Hosts China aim to dominate the Asian Games medal table for the eighth consecutive time as it sends its largest-ever squad to Guangzhou for the massive sporting event.
China’s team of more than 1,400 athletes and officials will participate in all but one of the 42 sports – kabbadi – at the November 12-27 Games, with 35 Olympic champions in its squad.
“We consider the Asian Games an important part of our preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games,” said Duan Shijie, vice minister of sports and chef de mission of Team China.
“We want our athletes to show their fighting spirit and sportsmanship at the Asian Games and maintain our leading position in the rankings.”
China will likely dominate table tennis, gymnastics, diving, badminton, weightlifting and track and field, while fielding competitive athletes in a bevy of other sports, with a total of 476 gold medals up for grabs.
At the last Asiad in Doha in 2006, China topped the table for the seventh straight time with 165 gold. It grabbed 316 medals overall, to 198 for Japan and 193 for South Korea.
China’s sports machine is nevertheless mainly geared for Olympic competition, which means that the Asiad will largely be used as a platform for young aspiring athletes to get international competition experience.
“Our country now has more than enough power to support the development of competitive sports,” Yang said.
“The athletes still have to try their best in every single event (in Guangzhou) and prepare themselves for the 2012 London Olympic Games.”
Team China will be coming off its strongest-ever Olympic performance at the 2008 Beijing Games where it topped perennial sports powerhouses the United States and Russia in the gold medal stakes.
But many of the stars of Beijing will be absent in Guangzhou, including four-time Olympic gold medal winning women’s diver Guo Jingjing and her men’s teammate Wang Feng, media reports said.
NBA stars Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian will miss the Asiad basketball tournament, dampening China’s hopes. Olympic swimming champion Liu Zige, the world record holder in the women’s 200m butterfly, will also miss the party.
While China’s badminton coach Li Yongbo is hoping his team can win all five gold medals on offer, repeating a feat accomplished in the World Championships in Paris in August, he will have to do it without some of his stars.
Women’s world champion singles holder Wang Lin, women’s Olympic mixed double champion Zhang Bo, reigning Olympic women’s double champion Du Jing and former world number one women’s singles star Wang Yihan will not be in Guangzhou.
But legendary badminton star Lin Dan – known as “Super Dan” – and reigning world men’s single champion Chen Jin are expected will be there.
China has won 48 table tennis championships in the past nine Asian Games and took six of the seven gold medals in Doha. If it wants to better that showing, it must do so without retired women’s stars Wang Nan and Zhang Yining.
In track and field, former Olympic champion Liu Xiang is expected to seek his third Asian Games crown in the 110m hurdles but will face tough competition from teammate Shi Dongpeng, who beat Liu for the first-time earlier this year.
China is hoping to equal the 14 gold medals it won in athletics in Doha, with hopes highest in women’s shot put, discus and long-distance running.
At the world gymnastics championships in the Netherlands in October, China topped the medals table with four gold, four silver and one bronze, leaving its team of mostly young stars primed for Guangzhou.
“I’m not satisfied with our performance. As the team champions of the Beijing Olympics, we didn’t do very well this time,” said China’s women’s coach Lu Shanzhen, whose squad took the bronze behind Russia and the United States.
“We’ll keep improving ourselves, and we will be the strongest team at the London Olympics. We’ll fight for more gold medals.”
Read more: Asiad: China to dominate Games in Guangzhou - The Times of India