The Chinese divers never underestimate their opponents and they are cautious more than ever now as the Athens Olympic Games comes near.

Despite the undisputed domination in diving, which brought in five golds for the Chinese delegation in Sydney Olympics four years ago, the Chinese diving team will be faced with unprecedented challenges from both the rising stars and familiar rivals.

Chinese diving team's anchorman Tian Liang said he has been able to foretell what a fierce competition he and his teammates will be met with in Athens since he suffered defeats in both individual and synchronized platform events at June's Mexico Super Final, the last major international diving meet ahead of the Athens Games.

Sydney Olympic champion Tian narrowly missed the individual platform victory of the June 19-20 Super Final, surrendering it to Canadian teenager Alexandre Despatie, who also grabbed the title in last July's Barcelona World Championships where Tian finished fourth.

"Now I am fully aware who will be my biggest rival in Athens,"said Tian, 24. "It is a timely loss, which gives me more motivation to work harder ahead of the Games."

"One or two defeats won't mean that I will be stay behind forever. I still believe in myself,"said Tian, also expected to compete in the synchronized event with new partner Yang Jinghui.

Yang replaced Hu Jia last year to team up with Tian for their first combined international appearance at the Daegu World University Games and emerged victorious before they clinched the Athens World Cup title in February.

The super final defeat by Australia's world champions Robert Newbery and Mathew Helm rang an alarm for the Chinese pair.

The Australian duo edged Tian and Hu, in their last cooperation, to take the world synchronized title, boasting of their rather steady 5255B, a dive with the highest difficulty degrees of 3.8 under the guidance of their coach, former world champion Tong Hui from China.

"We do not have the most difficult dives but we have rather high difficulty degrees and dives of best quality," said Tian. "All we need is to bring in our most stable form in Athens."

"They learned a lesson from each defeat, which will prove valuable in the Olympics," said team coach Zhong Shaozhen.

The men's springboard will see a multi-party fight for the two titles.

Peng Bo, Wang Kenan and Wang Feng are to make their Olympic debut and they have to be up against more experienced opponents.

"None of them ever competed in the Olympics and they have some much to catch up with facing so many strong competitors," said national team coach Hu Enyong.

Dmitri Saoutine stands as a respectable long-time rival to the Chinese springboard specialists as the 30-year-old, despite suffering from chronical back and wrist injuries, has keeping his game at the top level since he beat Chinese ace Xiao Hailiang and Tian in the platform in 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won in the synchronized platform four years later in Sydney.

The Russian veteran, also Fukuoka worlds 3m board winner, won't be alone in the title contention against the Chinese legion as his fellow countryman Alexander Dobroskov, eight years his junior, comes along to strive for both individual and synchronized 3m board titles.

The Barcelona winning pair will compete along with Australian duo Newbery and Steven Barnett as well as the versatile Despatie, Athens World Cup 3m board titlist.

Barcelona double champion Guo Jingjing is set to spearhead Chinese women's charge towards Olympic glory.

Recovering from an ankle injury incurred during the winter training camp, Guo has kept a low key about her Olympic gold expectations after her double disappointments in Sydney, losing to teammate Fu Mingxia in the individual event and surrendering synchronized title to Russian pair Vera Ilina and Ioulia Pakhalina, who are also hot favorites for both the individual and synchronized events aside from Guo and her partner Wu Minxia.

The synchronized platform seems to be a sure bet for the Chinese divers as long as Olympic debutantes Lao Lishi and Li Ting, both at 17, carry on their winning momentum from the World Championships to the Olympics.

But the individual gold is not a goal easy to reach.

Canadian Emilie Heymans, boasting of the highest difficult dives, edged the Chinese to stand on the top of the podium at the worlds before Sydney platform gold medalist Laura Wilkinson of the United States clinched the Athens World Cup title.

"The women divers from other countries and regions are catching up fast and rapidly narrowing the gap between the Chinese divers and themselves,"said another national team Liu Henglin.

"They can handle very hard moves while improving their quality. They would be hard to beat if they were steady enough," Liu added.

Following is the Chinese diving team:

Women: Guo Jingjing, Wu Minxia, Lao Lishi, Li Ting, Mo Hanna

Men: Peng Bo, Wang Feng, Wang Kenan, Tian Liang, Hu Jia, Yang Jinghui

Source: Xinhua