China, Chile Ink Memorandum on Sports Cooperation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 14, 2002

China, Chile Ink Memorandum on Sports Cooperation

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Chilean Olympic Committee (COC) signed a memorandum of understanding on sporting cooperation with their Chinese counterpart on Thursday in Beijing, hoping they could get help from the emerging sporting powerhouse.

"This deal means that a new window is opened for the development of our sports," said Fernando Eitel Polloni, COC president.

China is one of the sporting powers in the world, finishing third at Sydney Olympics in 2000 with a great haul of 59 medals including 28 golds.

The country has kept their longtime dominance in such sports as table tennis, gymnastics, diving, badminton and shooting.

"We should learn from you, as you are world champions in a number of sports," he added.

He cited table tennis as an example, saying that their strength in this sport has been enhanced with the help from China.

"Now our table tennis has been at the top level not only in South America, but also on the American continent," he said.

The cooperation between the two countries actually has been going on for long, as 18 Chinese coaches were assigned the job to help the country in such sports as table tennis, gymnastics and volleyball from 1978 to 1987.

In 1993 the Chilean Olympic Committee sent a delegation to China and signed a sporting cooperation agreement with their counterpart.

But today's memorandum is the first one between the two countries since Polloni was appointed as the Chilean Olympic president about one year ago.

"Without signing the memorandum of understanding, I would get sleepless," he said.

On the part of China, it also wished to get help from Chile, particularly in such sport as football.

Just before today's signing ceremony, China lost their last group match 0-3 against Turkey at the ongoing World Cup finals.

"China failed to win one match or score a goal in the tournament, which showed that our level is still quite low," said Yuan Weimin, president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

"In this way we need to learn from you," he added.

Though failing to qualify for the South Korean and Japan World Cup finals, Chile still has great strength in soccer, finishing third in the Sydney Olympics men's soccer tournament.

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