Though the host team posted a satisfactory record of two gold and four silver medals at an Olympic taekwondo test event, a Chinese official warns that Chinese taekwondoists need to toughen their nerves for this summer's Olympic Games.
"Chinese players performed steadily in this tournament but sometimes they felt too nervous," said Zhao Lei, vice president and secretary general of the Chinese Taekwondo Association (CTA).
"They looked nervous while facing reporters too," he added.
Zhao said the next stage of training will be aimed at strengthening their mind.
The four-day, eight-event Olympic test event, namely the "2008 Good Luck Beijing" International Taekwondo Invitational Tournament, concluded in Beijing on Friday night.
Though the event drew 128 athletes from 27 countries and regions, the same number of athletes for Olympics, China's world champion Chen Zhong and star taekwondists from South Korea, Iran and Chinese Taipei were missing.
On the controversy surrounding misjudging referees, Yang Jin-sun, Secretary General of World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), cleared up doubts at the press conference on Friday afternoon.
"Up to now, no protest has appeared in this tournament, which is a good sign for the judges. Besides, the name lists of the qualified 29 referees for Olympics will be released at headquarters of WTF tomorrow," said Yang.
According to him, the eligible judges were identified through a series of selection. Since last summer, 54 out of 140 referees had been chosen to receive the systemic training. Then the practical tests of five continental championships finally decided 29 Olympic judges.
In the evening's final two events, Tunisia and France won their first gold of the tournament when Ben Hamza Khaoula and Gentil Pascal were crowned at women's over 67kg and men's over 80kg division respectively.
China tops the final medal tally with two gold, four silver and 10 bronze. Turkey finished second with two gold and Canada stayed third with one gold and two bronze.
(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2008)