One step at a time

After narrowly missing out on medals at their home Olympics, Chinese walkers have set their sights on winning the gold in London, Tang Zhe reports.

The Chinese race walking team is determined to stroll home with gold from the London Olympics. China's Wang Hao finished fourth in the men's 20 kilometer race at the Beijing Games four years ago and Liu Hong emulated that feat in the women's 20km.

The Chinese sports authority now wants the team to improve on that and win at least two Olympic medals in London, and there are particularly high hopes for Liu.

Zhang Fuxin, who coached Liu at the Beijing Olympics, said the 25-year-old has a great chance to win the country's third gold in race walking at her second Olympics.

China won gold medals in the women's 20km race at the 1992 and 2000 Olympic Games, but is yet to medal in the men's events.

"Liu had no international experience when she joined the national team in 2005. She took part in some international competitions from 2006 to 2008, and finished fourth at the Olympics," said Zhang. "I think she is mature now, and is competitive enough to fight for a gold medal."

A new generation of race walkers is also rising rapidly and is expected to overcome the pressures performing on the Olympic stage.

The 21-year-old Wang Zhen, who broke the Asian record in the men's 20km at the Olympic trials in Taicang, Jiangsu province, in March, maintained his form and claimed his first international title by overwhelming Beijing Olympic champion Valeriy Viktorovich Borchinin of Russia at the World Race Walking Cup this month in Russia.

"We didn't expect Wang Zhen to win, because our target was to train the squad to peak for the Olympics," said team manager Pu Zhiqiang. "The Russians might be preserving their real strength for the Games, but the victory is at least a huge boost to Wang's confidence, and our coach will now be even more determined to guide the athletes to victory at the Olympics.

"Borchinin is still the best walker in the men's 20 km event. Wang Zhen has the ability to challenge him, but still does not compare with the Russian in experience, and we are practicing various strategies in training in order to prepare for different circumstances at the Olympics," Pu said.

According to another national team coach, Sun Li'an, China's male walkers have made substantial improvements. Wang Zhen and Chen Ding have the world's second and third best results this year; behind Italy's Alex Schwazer. China boasted the top three last year.

"Chen is a young athlete with little experience in international competitions, but he broke the Asian record in Taicang and is in good form. We are two months away from the Olympics and we will put up a strong fight for a medal in the men's 20km," Sun said.

"The biggest challenge for us is that all three of our male athletes (Cai Zelin is the other) have no Olympic experience, and only Wang Zhen has competed at the world championships," Sun said. "Our young athletes have to learn how to handle pressure and show what they have achieved in training at the Olympics."

Lu Xiuzhi and Cheyang Sigya will team with Liu to fight for the women's 20km crown.

Lu and Sigya had been red carded several times in major races and have modified their walking styles since joining the national team. Lu, 18, finished second behind Liu at the Taicang trials and fourth at her first World Cup in Russia.

Team manager Pu said though the Chinese walkers have distinguished themselves individually at recent international events, the team needs to develop greater cooperation to challenge the Russians.

"Our athletes were still competing as individuals at the World Cup, but all of Russia's walkers performed well together," Pu said. "Though they lost to us in the men's 20km, they took second and third. They had the champion and runner-up in the women's 20km, and monopolized all the medals in men's 50km.

"We have to overcome Russia's teamwork to win Olympic gold, and we will implement specialized training to combat that," Pu said.

"We also need to pay attention to the other European nations as they will be competing at home," he said. "England is the cradle of race walking. It has few impressive results at international tournaments, but it has a long tradition in race walking and people from five years of age to those in their 70s are all involved in the sport."

Contact the writer at tangzhe@chinadaily.com.cn