Coach plays down China's chances
Source: Agencies |
July 19, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA head coach Yao Zhengjie has downplayed his team's chances of winning multiple golds for the home crowd at the world championships in Shanghai, saying his swimmers are concentrating instead on the London Olympics next year.
"Of course we're improving, but we're still quite far behind the United States and Australia," Yao said yesterday. "We won just one gold at the 2008 Olympics so we just want to work harder and get better."
China has spent the past decade rebuilding its swimming program following a series of devastating doping scandals in the 1990s. The Chinese women's team dominated the sport in the early part of the decade, winning 12 gold medals at the 1994 worlds, but dozens of swimmers subsequently tested positive for banned substances.
Chinese swimmers didn't win any golds at the 2005 or 2007 worlds, and just the one gold in their home pool at the 2008 Olympics when Liu Zige captured the women's 200-meter butterfly.
At the 2009 worlds in Rome, however, the team started to show signs of a resurgence, winning 10 medals overall, including four golds.
"Of course, the more golds we win in Shanghai, the better," Yao said. "But I know it will be difficult. The Americans, Australians and Europeans are really experienced and have a long history in these events."
China's top hope in Shanghai is the popular 19-year-old Sun Yang, who shocked the world last year at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, where he nearly broke Australian Grant Hackett's 10-year-old world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle.
Sun, under the tutelage of Hackett's former coach, Dennis Cotterell, finished the Guangzhou race in 14 minutes, 35.43 seconds, just under a second off Hackett's 14:34.56 from the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan in 2001.
Sun will be competing in the 800 and 1,500 freestyle events in Shanghai, but said earlier this month that his most important race will be the 400, where he'll face South Korean rival Park Tae-hwan. Sun has set the fastest time in the world this year in the event at 3:41.48, just .05 faster than Park's best.
"We want him to be more experienced through this competition and focus more on the Olympics next year," Yao said. "We aren't putting much pressure on him to break the world record (in the 1,500)."
Yao said China is expecting to win a gold in the women's 200 butterfly, which features both Liu and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Jiao Liuyang.
"Of course we're improving, but we're still quite far behind the United States and Australia," Yao said yesterday. "We won just one gold at the 2008 Olympics so we just want to work harder and get better."
China has spent the past decade rebuilding its swimming program following a series of devastating doping scandals in the 1990s. The Chinese women's team dominated the sport in the early part of the decade, winning 12 gold medals at the 1994 worlds, but dozens of swimmers subsequently tested positive for banned substances.
Chinese swimmers didn't win any golds at the 2005 or 2007 worlds, and just the one gold in their home pool at the 2008 Olympics when Liu Zige captured the women's 200-meter butterfly.
At the 2009 worlds in Rome, however, the team started to show signs of a resurgence, winning 10 medals overall, including four golds.
"Of course, the more golds we win in Shanghai, the better," Yao said. "But I know it will be difficult. The Americans, Australians and Europeans are really experienced and have a long history in these events."
China's top hope in Shanghai is the popular 19-year-old Sun Yang, who shocked the world last year at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, where he nearly broke Australian Grant Hackett's 10-year-old world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle.
Sun, under the tutelage of Hackett's former coach, Dennis Cotterell, finished the Guangzhou race in 14 minutes, 35.43 seconds, just under a second off Hackett's 14:34.56 from the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan in 2001.
Sun will be competing in the 800 and 1,500 freestyle events in Shanghai, but said earlier this month that his most important race will be the 400, where he'll face South Korean rival Park Tae-hwan. Sun has set the fastest time in the world this year in the event at 3:41.48, just .05 faster than Park's best.
"We want him to be more experienced through this competition and focus more on the Olympics next year," Yao said. "We aren't putting much pressure on him to break the world record (in the 1,500)."
Yao said China is expecting to win a gold in the women's 200 butterfly, which features both Liu and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Jiao Liuyang.
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