China Eyes Two Gold Medals at Gymnastics Worlds ����China cautiously set a target of winning two gold medals at the 1999 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, according to the Chinese team officials at a press conference in Tianjin October 7. ����"Our gymnasts are in good form and if we perform our best we can claim victory in the men's team competition," the team leader Qian Kui said. ����"This is a well-balanced and best ever men's team, which hopefully can retain the team title for the fourth consecutive time," Qian added. ����China regards Russia as its arch-rival for the men's team contest. "The Russian team has some big names like Alexei Bondarenko and Alexei Nemov who are also hot contenders in the individual events," Qian said. ����With the absence of injured world champions Zhang Jinjing and Kui Yuanyuan, the Chinese team is mostly composed of inexperienced young athletes, averaging 20-year-old for the men and 16 for the women. ����Besides the men's team title, China also has strength to claim the victory in the pommel horse, floor exercise, vault and bars. ����"However, it is difficult for us to win more than one individual gold medals," team head coach Huang Yubin admitted. "There are many hot contenders also from Belarus, France, Japan, and Spain." ����Comparing with their men's counterparts, Chinese women's team faces a tougher prospect of making a breakthrough to win the team title. They took the silver medal in 1995 and bronze in 1997. ����As the only girl who had competed in the world championships, Liu Xuan, a beam and uneven bars specialist, will be the Chinese women's backbone and leads six debutants for the meet. ����"It seems like an elder sister spearheads six little sisters," Qian joked. "However, they are competitive in the traditional strong points of the beam and uneven bars events." ����The 17-year-old Ling Jie had dethroned Russian Olympic champion Svetlana Khorkina in the uneven bars in their recent three encounters. ����"Ling Jie and Liu Xuan are our best shots at the coming tournament," their coach Liu Guicheng said. (Xinhua) SportsNews 1999-10-08 Page4 Full Story in Chinese