As BMX (Bicycle Motocross) racing makes its Olympic debut this August, Chinese bikers' chance to compete at home looks dim after they failed to book any berths for the Beijing Olympics at the UCI BMX world championships held in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province on Saturday.
"I tried my best, but it was still too hard for me to advance to the next round," said Ma Liyun, who was eliminated from the first round of the tournament.
According to UCI rules, the top eight female and sixteen male riders of this tournament will automatically qualify for Beijing Olympics, and the rest berths will go to riders who topped the UCI rankings. A total of 24 female and 32 male riders will compete in the Olympics.
Ma still hopes to compete in Beijing with a wild card.
"Now, the only thing I can do is to keep praying, and hope that I could get one wild card for the Olympics, " said Ma.
According to UCI rules, there will be three wild cards being issued for the Beijing Olympics.
"We will write a petition to ask for at least one wild card for the Olympics, " said Jiang Guofeng, general secretary of the Chinese Cycling Association.
"The issuing of the three wild cards will be based on promoting the development of BMX in all over the world and the level of athletes. China will host the Olympics, and I hope UCI will give Chinese riders a chance to compete at home," added Jiang.
Starting in late 1960s in California of United States, BMX was brought to China in late 1990s. China organized its first national team in 2003 and Ma was enrolled to the team and won China its first international competition gold in 2003 Asian Championship in Thailand.
"Even I might be at the top level in Asia, there is still a big margin between me and the top athletes of Europe and United States.We had made some progress after four years training and competition, but there is still a long way to go, " said Ma, who just returned from training in the United States for almost a month.
In 2003, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made BMX part of the competition program of the 2008 Olympic Games. The BMX event will take place on August 20-21, 2008. The first day will see qualification competitions for men and women.
(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2008)