Chinese walkers have great chance to win an Olympic medal, or even the gold, in Beijing as a group of them are at the world top level, a technical official of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) said on Thursday.
"It is no surprise to me that Chinese walkers get their best results at the Beijing Olympics as they have made great progress in both techniques and tactics and the long-distance walk is a traditionally strong point with China in athletics," Shen Chunde, the Chinese member of the IAAF Technical Committee, told Xinhua.
Chen Yueling from China won the women's 10km walk title at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and her compatriot Wang Liping was crowned in women's 20km walk at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
After Jiang Qiuyan took the first gold medal at the Bangkok Universiade for China in women's 20km walk early this morning, Shen said, "Jiang is in top five female walkers in China and has great chance to take part in the Beijing Olympics."
Jiang, who had been crowned at the last Universiade in Izmir, Turkey, in one hour 33 minutes and 13 seconds, defended her title with a time of 1:35:22 in Ayutthaya Province, 60 kilometers north to Bangkok.
Jiang, 24, came to Bangkok with the Asian Athletics Championship title claimed in Jordan last month.
Jiang's time of 1:33:13 in Izmir is still the Universiade best, though her personal best is 1:27:00. The world record of 1:25:41 was set by Russian walker Olimpiada Ivanova at the Helsinki world athletics championships on August 7, 2005.
"At the Beijing Olympics, the arch rivals of the Chinese walkers are from Russia, but the Chinese have the advantage of competing on home soil," said Shen, who is also the technical supervisor of the 24th Universiade athletics competitions.
Source: Xinhua
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