Chinese athletes scooped three gold medals on Sunday, the last day of the 2006 World Rowing Championships, setting a new world best in the process at Dorney Lake in the UK.

The record was set in style by the women's lightweight quadruple sculls crew. Fan Xuefei, Yu Hua, Chen Haixia and Liu Jing won the gold medal in 6:23.96, a 5.44-second improvement from the time they set when they won their heat last Monday.

Fan, who turns 16 in October, became the youngest-ever world champion rower.

"She has been rowing now for three years," said China's team manager, Xu Gaohang.

"She is a very modest young woman and was amazed to find out that she had become famous for being the youngest rower in the World Championships," he said.

Xu Dongxiang and Yan Shimin, who pinched Australia's world record earlier this year at the World Cup in Poznan, Poland, dominated the final of the women's lightweight double sculls. They had a slightly slow start, but soon took the lead and sculled smoothly ahead of the competition.

The last gold for China came from the men's lightweight coxless fours. Huang Zhongming, Wu Chongkui, Zhang Lin and Tian Jun rowed a superb race to outpace early leaders Ireland to take first place.

"We planned to row our best ever race. To get the first men's gold in this Olympics event was fantastic," Huang said after the race.

"We are pleased with the overall performance of the Chinese team and we aim to do even better at the Beijing Olympics," said team manager Xu.

"We are learning a great deal by being here at the World Championships and we hope that we will be able to achieve the same high standards of organization at the Beijing Olympics."

With three gold medals and one silver, the Chinese rowing team finished fourth in the medal standings after 27 events. Hosts Great Britain was top of the table with four gold medals, one silver and three bronzes.

The 2006 World Rowing Championships was organized by the Amateur Rowing Association and took place from August 20 to 27. Dorney Lake, near Windsor, will be the venue for the rowing events during the 2012 London Olympics and the Paralympic Games.
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(CRI August 28, 2006)