With the curtain of the 7th Chinese National Games for the
Disabled lowered in Kunming, southwest China, Sunday afternoon,
local organizing committee and all people concerned are in a
morale-boosting mood to look at the Beijing Paralympic in 2008.
Serving as a rehearsal for the Paralympics, the National Games
has witnessed 62 world records surpassed by the Chinese athletes,
with 50 from athletics, swimming, powerlifting and shooting,
another 12 in cycling and archery.
When the veterans have lived up to their world-calibre
reputation, some new faces also had satisfactory performances
during the Games, providing an all-around preparation for the
Paralympics in 2008, and all the anti-doping tests conducted before
and during the Games turned out to be negative, said the local
organizing committee.
The disabled Chinese athletes have written off world records in
most of the sports during the National Games, with 23 from the
track and field events, 19 in swimming, five in powerlifting and
three in shooting. Eleven cycling records were also inked, with
another one in archery.
Besides, in other Paralympic sports like wheelchair basketball
and 7-a-side football, the national competition levels have also
been raised, said the organizing committee.
At the Games, those world record holders and Athens Paralympic
champions all retained their upper-hands in good forms.
Wang Xiaofu, the most famous swimmer of the Chinese team with
five world records, achieved a Grand Slam in all nine events he
took part. Besides, the 18-year-old also surpassed two world
records of his own to prove his prowess.
Swimmer Li Hanhua of the Guangdong province even overshadowed
five world records during the Games, the most world records
bettered by any individual of the 2,251 athletes during the
Games.
Guo Wei, another holder of five world records, also improved on
a pair of world records in the men's shot put and javelin, and won
three golds at the Games, where Zhang Haidong also surpassed the
men's 82.5kg powerlifting world record, becoming one of the three
Chinese men lifters with world mark performance.
Even more important, some fresh blood also sprouted up during
the Games. Shanghai debutant Jiang Jieyun attained two golds and a
silver to steal the limelight from the national team members, and
the swimming and athletics coaches echoed the words of recruiting
those new faces into the national teams in the future.
Experts from the Chinese Paralympic Sports Administrative Center
and national teams coaches also unveiled their plans for the
Beijing Paralympics.
In the coming June, the national athletics, swimming and
shooting teams will disclose their team lists with unprecedented
large numbers of athletes.
According to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC),
athletes from the hosts will not automatically advance to the
Paralympics. Thus, China will dispatch them to compete in all kinds
of international meets to gain required points, and improve their
skills and experience.
Besides, the scientific research sports organizations will also
intensify their efforts to help make suitable training plans for
the athletes. And more psychologists, nutritionists and experts in
rehabilitation will be provided for the teams. A nationwide system
will continue working.
Despite all the efforts, the Chinese experts and coaches are
well aware of the challenges ahead as the athletics events will be
trimmed down from 194 to 160 for the Beijing Paralympics, some
strongholds for the Chinese athletes will be cut, and China also
slumped to the fourth place at the Denmark Open in March in
swimming, a bonanza of gold medals for the Chinese athletes.
However, with the advantage of home turf and through
preparation, China is reasonably to be tipped to retain its top
position on both gold and overall medal tally, which was achieved
by China for the first time in Athens in 2004.
(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2007)