The Chinese women skaters will be heading for Vancouver in a high mood after completing a clean sweep of five golds in the speed skating tournament at the sixth Asian Winter Games where seven Asian records out of eight were broken.

Wang Fei, 25, opened Chinese women's gold haul by winning the 3,000m event, which was a traditional feat of the Japanese team, with an Asian record of four minutes and 13.08 seconds.

Three Chinese skaters, headed by 21-year-old Wang Beixing, seized the top three positions in 1,000m event on the final day of the speed skating tournament at the Asiad.

"It is quite beyond our expectation, and the results are good." said China's speed skating official Xiao Hua here on Thursday after the 10-event tournament concluded. "Our target here was to take four gold medals."

China only grabbed one gold in the last edition of Winter Asiad in Aomori, Japan in 2003.

Wang Fei crowned twice in 3,000m and 1,500m events while Wang Beixing was a double winner in 500m and 1,000m. The gold medal of the newly-introduced Asiad event 100m went to 28-year-old Xing Aihua.

"We made well preparation for this tournament, while some of our arch rivals such as Lee Sang-Hwa of South Korea was not in a good form after competing in the Winter Universiade," said Xiao.

"We should look beyond Asia. When it comes to the Winter Olympics, we have only one event which bears chance of winning a gold," said Xiao, citing Wang Beixing's 500m event as the big hope.

However, China's men skaters were comparatively fainter.

"We only bagged two silvers in the men's events, which was a pity," said Xiao.

South Korea won in the 1,500m, 1,000m and 500m events while Japan claimed the titles in 5,000m and 100m.

"South Korea has achieved great improvement in the past two years and has become a great threat to us," noted Xiao. "For Japan, as I know, they are training according to the Olympic schedule, so they are still in adjustment after the Turin Games. They will hit their top form in 2009, one year before the Vancouver Games."

The 6th Asian Winter Games kicked off on Sunday and will conclud on Feburary 4.

Source: Xinhua