China

Speedskaters to make impact in Asiad

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-01-29 13:40

CHANGCHUN, Northeast China - Canadian Kevin Crockett, coach of the Chinese speedskating team, is expecting to see Wang Beixing and his other prentices to reap their success at the 6th Asian Winter Games.

China's Wang Beixing competes in the women's 500 meters Essent ISU World Cup Speedskating race in Heerenveen, Netherlands, November 10, 2006. [Reuters]

Wang, the 21-year-old, is the hot favorite to win the women's 500m speedskating on Tuesday. Two years ago, she showed her prowess in the World Cup by winning her maiden title in the leg of Salt Lake City. From then on, she has been setting out on her medal-collecting mission in both national and international stages.

The Chinese speedskaters were once strong contenders on the international arena. In 1990, Wang Xiuli became China's first ever female speedskating world champion with a gold in the 1,500m at the World Championships in Ottawa, Canada. Two years later, Ye Qiaobo made the breakthrough at the Albertville Winter Olympics with two silver medals.

Since then, the Chinese team suffered setbacks with a pair of gold-less Winter Olympic Games. The once promising team was forced to think of changing its training methods and lagging placing.

Training hard behind closed door was not the way to success. The Chinese skaters came to realize that they need to learn from others. Wang was among the first group of the Chinese young skaters to train in Canada and was the first Chinese disciple of former Olympic medallist Crockett.

The 33-year-old Crockett believes Wang is in peak now and even has more chances to claim victory in the 500m than South Korean ace Lee Sang-Hwa, although the 17-year-old Lee topped the ISU rankings in both 100m and 500m.

"Wang is excellent now. I'm convinced that she would become Olympic and world champion one day", said Crockett, "But when I first met her three years ago, she had huge problems in skills."

Xiao Hua, manager of the Chinese speedskating team, echoed the words of Crockett.

"Before Wang went abroad for training, she could hardly skate into the final eight in national events," said Xiao, "However, she has made great progress with Kevin (Crockett) being her coach. Nowadays, she could easily make the top eight in international competitions."

To exploit the success of Wang, Xiao explained that China has been sending more and more young skaters abroad for training. Through advanced methods and equipment, these hopefuls are cheerfully on their way to a rejuvenation mission for the Chinese speed skating.

And promising results have already been achieved in the first-day competition after the opening ceremony on Monday when Wang Fei beat a pair of Japanese top-class skaters to clinch the women's 3,000m title with an Asian record, the first gold medal at the ongoing Asian Winter Games.