Masayo Imura of Japan is confident to lead the Chinese synchronized swimmers to go higher despite the host team has recorded its best ever results in the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai.

With six silver and one bronze medals, China showed their promising talents in the seven-discipline competitions which ended Saturday night, bettering their performances in the last world swimming championships in 2009.

"There is still room for improvement. As for the London Olympics, we still need to improve," said the 61-year-old Imura, who led the upward team to their first Olympic synchronized swimming medal (bronze) in 2008.

"The Russian team are still No. 1 in synchronised swimming, they are better than us in all elements. But I'm confident we can reach the level of them in the future," she added.

Just as she mentioned, Russia is no doubt the best team in the synchro world.

In Shanghai, Russian swimmers, who wrapped up all the seven golds, were unbeatable in each preliminary and final.

No matter spins, handstands and pirouettes in the pool, they were always Russian prerogative. The other teams found it very difficult to score higher than 97 points in the shows, but Russian swimmers always topped the competitions with the points higher than 98.

Facing such a giant in the pool, who can break their block in the world's synchronized swimming seems a highly difficult task.

But the Japanese coach still believed that China was the only team in the world who can beat the "dream team" in future.

The confidence is just the same as she had when she first took the coaching position in China.

The dubbed "godmother" of Japanese synchronized swimming, started coaching her country's team in 1978. She helped her swimmers to eight Olympic medals over the past 30 years.

Imura started coaching in China after the 2006 Doha Asian Games in which China dethroned long-time Asiad champion Japan in both the duet and team competitions.

When she started her new job, Imura reiterated her hope for ending medal drought for the host at the Beijing Olympics.

She suggested that Chinese girls should increase their weight to add more power in the shows. With her instruction, Chinese swimmers have improved markedly in strength, technique and speed, gradually receiving more and more recognitions from the world's judges. The bronze medal from Beijing Olympics was a gift for their hard training.

Starting the sport only twenty years ago, China has stormed to the first class in the world.

Besides the directions of Imura, the arduous work from Chinese swimmers and coaches should also not be forgotten. They spent months and years training and living together, sharing the ups and downs of the demanding sport.

With their team work, Chinese girls have reasons to aim higher at the next year's London Olympics.