Advanced Search
Business | Metro | Nation | World | Sports | Features | Specials | Delta Stories
 
 
China follows up high-profile routines for Olympic challenge
26/9/2007 10:39

In spite of a less sparkling performance at the latest gymnastic world championships, China sticks to tough-routine tactics heading towards the Beijing Olympic Games.

Huang Yubin, Chinese gymnastics head coach, shrugged off the error-proned mission in Stuttgart earlier this month and said he would continue to produce more complex routines ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Having won a record eight golds at the 2006 world championships in Aarhus, China managed only five in Stuttgart on September 1-9.

China plunged into plight of mistakes, which directly resulted in the losses in women's team, women's floor, parallel bars and beam.

Huang Yubin brushed off the team's lower medal tally and said errors that cost world titles were welcome ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"In terms of our Olympic preparations, mistakes help us to summarize our advantages and highlight our weaknesses," Huang said on Tuesday.

According to Huang, Chinese gymnasts would continue to lift the difficulty of their routines for a higher A mark than opponents.

"Our team is in better shape than it was a year ago as far as the Olympics are concerned."

The FIG, gymnastics governing body, cancelled the perfect 10 points code after the Athens Olympic Games and adopted the ever-progress principle in difficulty.

In Huang's strategy, the difficulty routine is the sharp edge to cultivate, but the consistency and stability is the key to ensure a success.

"As to raising difficulty levels, there is only one way forward as there are no boundaries placed on difficulty in gymnastics," Huang said.

"It can be seen from the past two world championships, all our champions' A scores (difficulty) were all very high, and their movements steady.

"So our method of raising difficulty will not change."

"But the consistency and stability weigh as heavy as the difficulty. It's totally in vain to have high difficulty routines without execute them in shape," said Huang.

"The blunders out of certain apparatuses in Stuttgart have already sound the alarm for us. You can never downplay stability and it's just like a person needs two legs to walk steady, otherwise you can only be counted as a limb."



Xinhua