Preview: Chinese Women Gymnasts Face Challenge in Asiad

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Preview: Chinese Women Gymnasts Face Challenge in Asiad

Chinese women gymnasts are expected to face challenges from Japan and Uzbekhstan at the 14th Asian Games, which started on September 29 in Busan.

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Chinese women gymnasts are expected to face challenges from Japan and Uzbekhstan at the 14th Asian Games, which started on September 29 in Busan.

And further more, the gymnasts from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), who for the first time takes part in an international event in the south part of the Korean Peninsula since 1945, may well emerge as dark horse in the competitions.

China, gymnastics tycoon in Asia and the world, has vowed to defend its team title and take the lion's share of the six golds on offer in the women's events starting Wednesday afternoon, but it won't be a piece of cake for them.

It has formed a squad of novices, Kang Xin, Zhang Nan and HuangJing, as well as Sun Xiaojiao, Chen Miaojie and Liu Wei, who are senior in age but not in international experiences.

"The women's squad for the Asian Games is the weakest compared with previous ones because of early retirement of Ling Jie, Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun's hand injury," Lu Shanzhen, national head coach for women, said here before the events take place.

Kang and Zhan have been widely expected to be main gold winners for the Chinese female gymnastics team, which have targeted three to four golds out of the six at stake.

The women's gymnastic events include the team, individual all-around and four single apparatuses, which are uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and vault.

None of Sun Xiaojiao, Chen Miaojie and Liu Wei are overwhelmingly strong in their specialties, said Lu. Sun Xiaojiao,bronze medalist in the 35th World Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium, is the only one to have participated in an international rivalry.

The absence of team captain Yang Yun from the Busan Asiad due to a hand injury sustained one month ago has dwarfed the Chinese competitive edge on the vault.

The gold on the apparatus may go to Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina, three-time Olympic Games participant and mother of a three-year-old son.

Chusovitina expressed confidence in netting a gold, so did her coach Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Asked if she could secure a gold medal, 27-year-old Chusovitina said confidently:"Yes."

Despite her age, "she is in very good form," Kuznetsova told Xinhua.

Gymnasts from Japan, South Korea and DPR Korea may well pose threat in the games.

The Japanese women gymnasts seek to collect four silver medals,including the team one at the Asiad, according to team manager Kasamatsu Shigeru.

The Japanese gymnasts, who may not guarantee the team gold in Busan, are expecting to be benefited from the new competition rules, which was adopted after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, to strikefor single golds.

The new rules, designed to focus on individual apparatus performance rather than all-around capability, hands more chance to individual talents.

In an interview with Xinhua, Kasamatsu analyzed his team members and anticipated Aya Manabe and Ayaka Sahara to have a golden harvest in Busan.

Manabe, who took part in the Tianjin World Gymnastic Championships in 1998, was strong in the floor exercise and vault,while Sahara, an East Asian Games participant two years ago in Osaka, could display excellent performance on the beam, the team manager said.

Erika Mizoguchi, a strong all-around gymnast, garner a fifth silver for Japan, Asia's second powerhouse after China.

Well for South Korea, the sport in the country has witnessed rapid progress in recent years, Kasamatsu said.

Chinese top gymnastic official Zhang Jian echoed Kasamatsu's comment after watching the men's team battle on Tuesday, saying the sport in the host country "made great improvement".

DPR Korea, with 12 gymnasts at the 14th Asiad, is another challenger not to be overlooked as its men's players displayed their power on Tuesday by finishing fourth after Japan.

"After we thoroughly studied our opponents, we believe that our gymnasts are quite competitive in such individual events as men's pommel horse and women's beam. As for the team events, we expected our girls to grab a medal," national team coach Ri Man-sop said last Wednesday upon arrival in Busan for the games.

"Our team is quite strong," noted Ri, who once coached Bae Gil-su to the pommel horse champion in 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

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