Much harder efforts are needed before China could perform better in future Olympic swimming competitions next year in Athens and 2008 in Beijing, officials of the China Swimming Association (CSA) said on Thursday.

"A tough challenge is ahead for us," said Li Hua, newly electedvice-president and secretary-general of Chinese swimming's national governing body.

"The new power balance after the 2000 Olympics in Sydney resulted in much more investment by the world's swimming powers and the adoption of more sophisticated training techniques," Li said. "This makes the situation even more difficult for Chinese Olympian swimmers, in Athens and Beijing."

To yield better results, a steady, sustainable and healthy development is the only way and a fully enforcement of the "Olympic Honor Program" is the key, Li said.

Zhao Ge, head coach of the Chinese national swimming team, confirmed his team had targeted one gold medal and two to three medals in the women's events and the male swimmers would try to enter the finals of two events, in Athens Olympic Games. "Even one gold medal in Athens is not easy for us," he admitted.

China suffered dearly for doping scandals involving its swimmers during the 1990s, especially at the 1994 Asian Games and the 1998 FINA world championships, with quite a number of swimmersand coaches suspended consequently. These bitter lessons, however,helped Chinese coaches and swimmers rethink what is the true and better way to win honors for their country, Li said.

But performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, 1998 AsianGames in Bangkok and this year's FINA world championships in Barcelona boosted Chinese swimmers'confidence and brought them from a historical low back to the right track. Only if we stick to the "down-to-the-earth" attitude, adopt the principles "focus on difficulty, strictness and true-to-game situation and high intensity" in training, the CSA official said.

"The national swimming team should play a leading role in our Olympic campaign," said Yuan Jiawei, CSA's deputy secretary-general. "Reshuffled one year ago, coaches and swimmers of the national team are fully carrying out the Program and, together with management, medical and scientific research personnel, they have become a real task force," Yuan said.

The CSA officials did not hesitate to admit that China is no match to world swimming powers the United States and Australia, and it is no longer superior even over regional power Japan, although Chinese got more medals than its Asian rivals in Barcelona.

The United States and Australia finished one-two in the final swimming medal table in Barcelona, with medal credit of 11-12-5 and 6-10-6 respectively. China was fifth on 3-0-4 and Japan ninth,2-1-3.

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