China sets sights on USA
DOHA, Qatar – China’s athletes ruled the Asian Games, accumulating nearly three times as many gold medals as second-place South Korea, in their last major showcase before hosting the 2008 Beijing Games.
Next comes the real test – trying to replace the United States atop the Olympic medal standings.
As the Chinese celebrate their 165 golds and 316 overall medals in Doha, coaches are repeating one message to their athletes: Don’t get too confident.
Despite the medal haul, Chinese sports officials say they got only what they expected from the young athletes who will form the core of the team they’re honing for the 2008 Olympics.
“Their achievements impressed me, but the athletes should be aware of the fact that Asian Games are not the same as Olympic Games,” said Duan Shijie, deputy head of the Chinese delegation at the Asian Games.
“In the Olympics, they will be faced with more pressure, stronger opponents and fiercer competition.”
It was a sentiment shared by Liu Xiang, who has become a celebrity in China after winning the men’s 110-meter hurdles at the Athens Olympics in a world record-equaling time.
“China may be the big brother in Asia and hard for other Asian countries to catch, but there are lots of countries that are better at Olympic sports such as swimming,” said Liu, who cruised to a comfortable win at Doha in 13.15 seconds.
China was second to the United States in the medal standings at Athens, with 32 gold medals to 36 for the Americans. Finishing first in 2008 has become almost a national obsession to the Chinese, which is why it surprised some observers that the team for Doha contained so many untested young athletes.
China’s 165 golds in Doha were more than 100 better than South Korea, which finished second with 58 gold medals. Japan was next with 50 golds, though it was second overall in the medals standings with 198 to 193 for South Korea.
China has topped the Asian Games medal chart every time since 1982 and took care to ensure this year was no different, bringing the largest team of 647 athletes.
Of those, almost 64 percent were participating in their first major multisport games, part of a strategy of giving greater competition experience to China’s deep pool of talent.
Some officials were critical of the younger athletes, saying their gold medals were what Duan called of “low quality” – won with results well below the top international level.
Among the top young performers were Zhang Wenxiu, who set an Asian record in the women’s hammer throw; Xue Fei, who won gold on the track in the women’s 5,000 meters; and 16-year-old He Ning, who was the all-around champion in women’s gymnastics. In swimming, Chen Zuo set an Asian record in the men’s 100 freestyle.
Qi Hui, a triple gold medal-winning swimmer, said the Chinese athletes could not have asked for a better testing ground.
“I don’t dare say whether we’ll be able to replicate this success in 2008, but we will have lots more competition under our belts, and lots more depth, particularly among these young ones that are starting to get experience,” Qi said.