Fatigue will become a major hinderance to the Chinese swimmers on their way to any gloryat the 22nd World University Games here,a Chinese team official said on Saturday.

The Chinese squad,spearheaded by triple world champion Luo Xuejuan,arrived here on Friday,only a month from their appearance at the world championships in Barcelona,Spain.

"The athletes are feeling tired after they have been in extremely fierce competition in the world championships,"said theswimming team leader Shang Xiutang.

Luo pulled off three gold medals in women's 50m and 100m breaststroke as well as 4x100medley relay in Barcelona.Qi Hui,the women's 200m breaststroke world record holder,finished third in her speciality event while the women's relay team bagged a bronze in 4x200m freestyle.

There were also two bronzes in women's 200m freestyle and women's 200m individual medley.

"After their peak form during the world championships,they arenot in their best shape.So we can't expect them to perform as well as they did in Barcelona,"Shang said.

"They need a long time to tune up as we did before the world championships,"he said,adding that they prepared for three months before setting off to Spain.

Luo will compete in the women's 50m while Chen Hua,Asian Gameschampion in women's 800m freestyle,will be the favorite of this event on Sunday.

But Shang refused to predict the results."They are in low formand we don't know what kind of opponents they will face,"he said.

"And that makes it hard to predict.""There might be someone who turns up to be a surprise to all ofus,"he added.

Beth Botsford of the United States cuts an important figure at the Universiade as she claimed the 1996Olympic title in women's 100m backstroke.