The possible gold medal count for Japan is between 42 and 58 at
the Doha Asian Games, a senior official from Japan delegation said
here on Monday.
"Four years ago in Busan, we are far behind in third place. This
time, we hope we can have between 42 to 58 (gold medals)," said
Hirosi Takeuchi, the press attache of the Japanese Olympic
Committee.
China finished top of the medals tally with 150 gold while host
South Korea was second with 96 and Japan settled for the third in
44.
"Our technical department conducted a survey and analyzed
potential performance of the team and reported us that between 42
to 58 is a possible medal count in terms of gold," he said.
"This time we have 906 athletes and official here and we believe
that we present a quite competitive team, particularly in swimming
and judo, which are always our strong fields," he said, adding that
men's and women's football are also medal hopefuls.
"And proudly, we present our athletes in all 39 sports," he
continued.
This squad will comprise 352 male and 276 female athletes, but
is nonetheless slightly smaller than the group of athletes last
time in Busan where they also bagged 74 silver and 72 bronze
medals.
Japanese top swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, double gold medalist in
2004 Athens Olympic Games, is coming back to his top form after a
series of injuries following the Olympic Games.
Kitajima won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke in Busan,
winning the latter in a world record time of 2:09.97.
Headed by Saori Yoshida, Japan's women wrestlers will try to
reap gold in all four categories after taking home five golds at
the world championships, and claiming medals in all categories they
competed in.
Judo is also rated gold hopefuls by Takeuchi although they
placed fifth in the men's competition at the most recent World Cup,
and was third in the women.
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(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2006)