Ren is China's trump card of wining women's mountain bike in Olympics
21/7/2008 17:17
Chinese athletes have got two tickets for the women's mountain bike in the
Beijing Olympic Games, which is a potential gold-wining discipline for China's
Olympic delegation.
Among them, Ren Chengyuan, 21, a key member of the
national team from Jiangsu, a southern province of China, is undoubtedly
undertaking the task of wining the gold because she is the first and only
Chinese rider who has so far won world titles of mountain biking.
In the 2004
Athens Olympic Games, China was only positioned 17th in the women's mountain
bike. However, in recent years the Chinese mountain biking teams, especially the
woman's one, have developed quickly.
Ren and her teammates have caught
people's eyes as she has become a familiar face on both the international and
domestic podiums since 2007 after she was positioned in the ranking in the 2005
World Cup.
In April 2007, Ren won her first gold medal in the World Cup
sponsored by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in Belgium, also the first
world title and the best record of China's mountain biking that has developed
for more than a decade.
In April 2008, Ren defended her World Cup title in
Belgium, and managed for a bronze despite being injured in the subsequent race
in German.
Sport experts believed Ren is very stable and has potentials to
win the Olympic gold. If she would make good use of the hosts' advantage, wining
the gold will not be a remote dream, they added.
In 2000, the 14-year old
entered the local mountain biking team in Xuzhou, a northern city in Jiangsu,
and in 2004 she was chosen to join the province team, then in 2005 she became a
member of national team. The last seven years has seen Ren from a layman to a
world champion.
Behind the glittering medals and good records are her
hardworking and great efforts.
Zhou Guangke, Ren's coach in the national
team, said it was he who chose Ren from the province team then because he
appreciated Ren's spirits of enduring hardship and never giving in to any
difficulty reflected in the training and racing.
Since mountain biking is a
sport dominated by western athletes, Zhou added, Ren's main opponents in Beijing
Olympic Games are those Western riders, including Russia's Irina Kalentieva,
Germany's veteran Sabine Spitz and several others from Norway and
Canada.
"Although the western athletes have prominent advantages in
technique, they are older than our athletes in general," said the national
coach, "I believe the key of our athletes to win the Olympic gold is good
combination of physical strength and techniques."
Just like Liu Xiang, the
first Chinese to win the Olympic gold medal in the western athletes-dominated
men's track and field event, said the coach, "my athletes are eager to win a
gold medal in the Beijing Olympic Games in order to popularize the sport. We are
sure that the Games is a good opportunity to make a historical breakthrough for
China's mountain biking."
Xinhua
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