A top Chinese wrestling official said in Wuhan, central China on
Thursday that the young wrestlers should get more strong mentally
before achieving good results at home and international
competitions.
Li Shan, deputy director of the Wrestling Department of the
State Sports Administration of China, said that the country has
some talents with great potential, but they always make some
mistakes at the crucial moment.
"That's the biggest problem exposed in the just-ended wrestling
competitions of the Chinese City Games," Li said.
Even some well-known young wrestlers failed to go further in the
City Games, including newly-crowned world junior champion Li
Songni.
Li Shan said that a mature athlete is first of all a "mentally
mature" athlete.
"Wrestlers should not be disturbed by anything before a match so
that they can concentrate all their energy on the match and perform
their best," he said.
Wrestlers participating in the City Games, who were all under
20, always had ups and downs during their competitions. "They could
win one match by a big margin, and can also lose another
surprisingly."
China has never won a gold medal from the men's wrestling in the
Olympic Games. After women's event became a medal event in the 2004
Olympics, their chance came.
Wang Xu won the first ever Olympic wrestling gold medal for
China in Athens from the women's 72kg class.
Wang's success also put lots of pressure on the country's
wrestling coaches and athletes. They have set their sights well
beyond the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. But problems are still
there.
Weight problems always caused wrestlers lots of trouble. Lei
Jingling, who won the women's 48kg silver at the world junior
championships, lost to little-known Nanjing wrestler Cao Jing in
the first round. Her coach imputed her failure to her weight loss
in the past two months.
"Lei is too thin. She only weighs 44kg but has to compete in the
48kg class, the lowest level of women's wrestling," said Lei's
coach Long Bu. "It was too much for her to play against an opponent
almost 4kg heavier."
"As a national team member, she was a potential champion. If she
wants to get better results, her weight must get close to 48kg, "
said Long.
"But it is really very difficult for young wrestlers to control
their weight," he said.
Li Shan said most of Chinese young wrestlers began to learn
wrestling too late.
"They usually started their career at the age of 12 or even
older, which means they had missed the best time to learn. It will
take time for them to achieve good and steady results," the
official said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)