A Chinese official in charge of water sports in the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) said here Thursday that he did not care much about the results of the draw for rowing's start list in the first two days into Beijing Olympics.
"I don't care much about it. If the Chinese rowers face strong foreign rivals, they can use the chance to make themselves stronger. If they falls into weaker groups, they can qualify for semifinals earlier," said Wei Di, director of GASC's water sports center, in an telephone interview with Xinhua.
The draw was done Thursday afternoon in Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park where the rowing events for Beijing Olympics will be held.
China is likely to break Western dominance in rowing at Beijing Olympic Games by winning its first ever gold medal in the discipline. It is widely believed that China has several boat classes which have the potential to win medals at the event.
The women's double sculls (W2x), lightweight women's double sculls (LW2x), and lightweight men's four (LM4-) are considered to be the most hopeful.
In W2x heats, Chinese rowers fall into the same group with British rivals, who won bronze medal in Athens four years ago. The Australians, who won the World Championship in 2006, can be another source of strong challenge.
In LW2x, China is in heat 3 to compete against Cuba, Japan, Denmark and South Korea. China won the 2006 World Championship in the event but lost to Australia in 2007.
The Danish rowers, who went home from the 2007 World Championship with a bronze medal, can be difficult to beat.
In LM4-, China is to compete Egypt, the Netherlands, Australia and Britain. Egypt is not so strong, but the other three are competitive.
China got the gold medal in the event in World Championship in 2006 and Britain claimed the title in the next year's World Championship.
(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)