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Following are the top 10 national sports stories in China in the
year of 2000 by Xinhua Sports Desk on Tuesday:
1. China made a historical breakthrough by ranking third both on
the gold medals and total medals tallies at the Sydney Olympic Games
from September 15 to October 1, grabbing 28 gold, 16 silver and
15 bronze medals. Three Chinese Olympians set eight world records
in 12 times, six Chinese athletes set 11 Olympic records in Sydney.
2. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose Beijing as one
of the five final candidate cities to bid for the right to host
the 2008 summer Olympic Games. The IOC will vote for the final decision
in Moscow in July of 2001.
3. Defending champion Xie Jun and her younger teammate Qin Kanying
finished 1-2 at the women's world chess championships. They also
led a Chinese sweep of the titles from the World Cup, the World
Junior Championships and the International Olympic Team Event.
4. China's ballgame sports went further downhill as Chinese women's
soccer team, runner-up in the Atlanta Games, was knocked out in
the group round in Sydney. The women's volleyball team, five time
world and Olympic champions and silver medallist in Atlanta, finished
in a disappointing fifth place. China's men's basketball team, with
the world tallest center Yao Ming (2.27 meters), failed to reach
the top eight. And China's men's volleyball, soccer and women's
basketball even failed to qualify for the Sydney Games.
5. A total of 117 Chinese athletes received doping tests in the
Sydney Olympic Games and all of them passed with none had active
result, thanks to China's stern and tough attitudes against any
kind of cheating in sports.
6. Chinese captain Sun Wen was awarded the women's soccer player
of the century in an Internet vote organized by the International
Football Federation (FIFA) and joined the newly- found Women's United
Soccer Association (WUSA) along with four of her national teammates
in November.
7. Chinese Football Association (CFA) made the decision at the end
of the year that no team from Chinese Soccer League Division A will
be demoted next year while top two teams from Division B will be
promoted as usual. Yugoslavian coach Milutinovic took the helm of
the Chinese national team early this year and led China to a fourth
place at the Asian Cup soccer tournament in October.
8. 2000 marked the fifth anniversary of the National Fitness Program,
which helped to set up a national wide exercising system to improve
the public health and fitness for ordinary people.
9. The Fourth National Farmers Games was held in October at Mianyang,
Sichuan Province, with more than 3,300 athletes from China's vast
countryside competing in 13 sports including typical traditional
events like Wushu, dragon boat racing, kite flying and Chinese chess,
etc.
10. Chinese women won their third team title at the World Table
Tennis Championships in February but Chinese men's squad failed
to complete the same feat by crashing to Sweden in the finals. During
the championships, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)
decided to increase the diameter of the table tennis ball from 38
millimeters to 40mm after the Sydney Games, where the Chinese players
swept all the four gold medals on offer.
(Xinhua 12/27/2000)
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