Mounting pressure looms on for Chinese archers to touch the
first ever Olympic title after four-time runners-up over the
years.
China's archery chief Zhou Yuan does not expect too much from
the Beijing Olympic Games with less than 300 days left for the
sports gala to open up.
"It's a great hurdle to leap over on the road to an Olympic gold
medal," said Zhou on Friday at the Chinese City Games, " Although
we have the courage and confidence to compete the best, we have to
admit that South Korea is much stronger."
"To South Korea, the archery is like table tennis to Chinese.
They are dominant by large and unmatched worldwide. Most of the
world records are handed down from South Koreans and Chinese
archers always lose in key matches.
"We lost to South Korea by only one point in women's team at the
Athens Olympics, and in Doha Asian Games last year, we were the
victims again," added Zhou.
"In Athens, I don't think the one-point gap reflected the real
strength of South Korea. They underperformed and we in contrast
outperformed, so it came the slim difference."
The situation remained the same at the Beijing Olympic trial in
August and then in Asian Archery Championships.
In the Olympic try-out, South Korea wrapped up all four
disciplines from individual to team, leaving only the second places
for other shooters worldwide to strive after. China's best result
came from Zhang Juanjuan, who was the only one to reach top
eight.
One month later, China clinched the second and third places in
women's individual at the Asian Championships. China's Guo Dan lost
to Lee Sung-jin of South Korea in women's individual final. The
result seemed to a better one for China, but you won't think so
with the knowledge that South Korea dispatched a second-class squad
there.
According to Zhou, there is a big gap to bridge between China
and South Korea. "South Koreans master better skill than us. And
Chinese archers' physical conditions are not that good in
endurance."
"We take much more time to train everyday, but the frequency of
shooting is much less than that by South Korean."
"We have no more than ten top archers in China, but in South
Korea the number is larger than 70. You can imagine their overall
strength."
Lin In Taek came from South Korea and now is coaching the Harbin
team.
"The Chinese archers are not training as hard as their South
Korean counterpart. I would prefer the word 'indolence' to define
their training. They don't know that an athlete should take
initiative if they want to be superior in international
competition."
China sets promising perspective for the sport. It's to shoot
for a gold medal for women team and a medal for men's, but the task
by now appears formidable.
Seven archers from the Chinese national team in the City Games
failed to sound up after first day's preliminaries here, with
nobody even advancing into last eight.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)