China names 26-strong gymnastics Olympic squad

China has named a 26-strong gymnastics squad for the upcoming Athens Olympic Game, Chinese head coach Huang Yubin said Sunday in Suzhou.

The interim lineup, consisting of 11 men and 15 women, will finally be reduced to six men and six women sometime after the ongoing Olympic trial, slated for May 14-17.

"It's really hard to choose between them and we may not make the decision until the last moment," said Huang.

The lineup includes all the 12 gymnasts who had competed last year's world championships in Anaheim, where China collected 5 gold medals to top the overall standings.

Huang said the results of the Olympic trial would not be the sole standard to decide the final lineup.

"You should take it all round, and one match doesn't mean all,"he said.

That means Chinese leading character Li Xiaopeng has already secured his berth. The Olympic champion is recognized as one of the world's best gymnasts. He took three gold medals in last year's world championship and have two difficult maneuvers named after him.

Chinese lineup:

Men: Li Xiaopeng, Huang Xu, Yang Wei, Xing Aowei, Teng Haibin, Xiao Qin, Feng Jing, Liang Fuliang, Dong Zhen, Lu Bin, Li Dezhi

Women: Fan Ye, Li Ya, Zhang Nan, Zhang Yufei, Wang Tiantian, Kang Xin, Lin Li, Gu Zheng, Lin Xia, Zhou Zhuoru, Cheng Fei, Liu Juan, Yang Yun, Yang Yahong, Chen Miaojie.