Japan targets 24 swimming golds at EAG

Japan aimed to win 24 golds in swimming, which began on Wednesday, at East Asian games.

Japanese coach Tsuyoshi Kato revealed their ambition to Xinhua when he sat with his swimmers in media area to cheer their divers one day before in Macao Aquatic center.

"Japan set a target of winning 24 gold medals in the forthcoming 6-day swimming race out of total 40 events. We got only a few professional swimmers and most of them are student swimmers. But they are capable to launch a gold rush for Japan," said Kato without covering much of their plan from Chinese media.

"Maybe China can have more than 16 golds, but 24 is our target and we will try to reach it."

Japan sent quite a few up-and-coming prospects to the games like Takeshi Matsuda, Yuko Nakanishi and Aya Terakawa.

Takeshi Matsuda won a silver in Montreal in men's 200m butterfly, overshadowing China's Wu Peng, China's most promising swimmer, who finished third. He is also the Asian 1500m freestyle record holder with 15:09.52.

The 24-year-old Yuko Nakanishi, the flag-holder of Japan on opening ceremony, was the women's 200m butterfly bronze winner both in Athens Olympics and worlds.

Genki Imamura is also regarded as Japan's prospect in Doha Asian Games and Beijing Olympics, who won men's 200m breaststroke bronze in Montreal and a bronze again in Izmir Universiade in the same event. He defeated Kosuke Kitajima, the 100m and 200m breaststroke golds medalist at Athens Olympics, in national championship in 200m breaststroke, and is quite likely to take Kitajima's position in Japan.

China sent most of its swimming master-hands to Macao. Luo Xuejuan, the 100m breaststroke champion in Athens and budding star Yang Jieqiao, 15, the double gold medalist in 400m and 800m freestyle at China's just closed national games. Wu Peng and Zhang Lin, multiple medalist in nationals, will spearhead Chinese swimmers in men's events.

Both Japan and China intended to take full use of the regional games to chasten their swimmers, preparing for large-scale contests in Asian games and Olympics.

Source: Xinhua