Watched by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the Australian Olympic delegation strode into the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night.

By sending 434 athletes, Australia aims at a third consecutive top-five finish on the medal table in Beijing.

Australia was always one of the first delegations to march in the Olympic ceremonies that paraded participating teams in alphabetic order. However, this time the order was decided by the strokes of each team's first character in its Chinese name, as Australia's first character has 15 strokes against Guinea's two.

Australia has competed in every Olympic Games and is one of the sixth nations to have hosted the Summer Games more than once.

After staging the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, host Australia peaked in the Sydney Games in 2000 by winning 58 medals, including 16 golds, to finish fourth in the medal tally. Four years later, the Aussies repeated their fourth placing in Athens, thanks to the country's highest ever gold tally of 17.

"The fact we finished fourth at the last two Olympics means there is an expectation. We had top-five objectives at both those Games, and we still do," said John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee.

Big fish Grant Hackett, captain of the swimming team, opted out of the flag-bearing responsibility to concentrate in his 400-meter heats.

Australia had won 52 Olympic golds in swimming and seven out of their 17 golds in Athens came from swimmers. This time, Australia dispatched 43 swimmers to Beijing, including six world record holders - Hackett, Libby Trickett, Leisel Jones, Eaman Sullivan, Stephanie Rice and Jessica Schipper over eight Olympic events.

The long-distance king Hackett showed he was in great shape by breaking the world record of the 800-meter freestyle in short course about half month ago.

"I'm confident I can get the best out of myself. I have prepared very well," said Hackett last Sunday while he arrived at the Beijing International Airport, facing a mayhem caused by the media.

Besides, the Australian rowing squad led by six-time Olympian James Tomkins, qualified for all the 14 rowing events in Beijing. Previously, only Germany had made the same achievement at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the Olympic rowing history.

The Aussies also pin medal hopes on cycling, athletics, men's field hockey as well as women's basketball and softball.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2008)